Not Just a Crossing Guard
by Ms.Informed13
Summary: 'Regina burst forth, using all her strength she tackled the blonde through the open door of Mary-Margret's classroom, "What on earth are you two doing?" The teacher shrieked. "She tackled me!" Emma cried defensively. "She has a gun!" Regina replied.' AU Swan Queen in which Emma's son attends elementary school where Regina works. Sweet and funny.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N- This is an AU Swan Queen story, mainly just your run of the mill Rom Com, and I'll keep it nice and light without too much angst :). I'll try and keep this updated regularly. Hope you enjoy!**

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Tina Bell hated parent teacher conferences. Ever since she had graduated and been hired full time at Storybrooke Elementary, she resented the day her classroom would fill with a passing parade of concerned parents all determined to convince her that their student was a prodigy. This year's conferences were sure to be no exception.

She had 26 kids in her class. That meant 26 sets of parents invading the sanctuary of her kindergarten classroom. But she was prepared, it was her fourth year teaching and she was well versed in dealing with pushy parents. She did one final run through of her classroom, collecting stray crayons and Duplo blocks while readjusting her headband so her blonde hair was pushed professionally off her face.

Returning to her desk, Tina swiveled her rolling chair away from the door and dug through her purse until she found the small child proof bottle, and swallowed two ibuprofen tablets dry.

"Should you be popping pills on the job?" an amused voice called from the doorway. If the voice weren't so familiar, Tina would have jumped and tried to hide the bottle, as it were she recognized the voice instantly.

"How else do you expect me to get through the day?" She screwed the lid on the bottle and tossed it effortlessly over her shoulder towards the door. Hearing it caught safely, Tina remained bent over her desk to rummage through the bottom drawer for her favorite pen and a class roster.

"Alcohol," the low voice replied sarcastically,"that's how I do it."

Tina turned around, an amused smile playing on her lips, "And that, Regina, is why you would be a horrible teacher."

"That and an intolerance for sticky things." Regina swallowed a couple of pills herself before lobbing the bottle back to the blonde.

"Lucky for the kids you're only an administrator."

Regina worked at the school before Tina had gotten there, and had systematically worked her way up the food chain until she was the youngest woman on the board of administration. Tina still didn't know what made her friend go into education: whenever she asked, the only answer she would get is that it paid well. But Tina knew that was a blatant lie.

"Only," Regina scoffed, "I am assistant principal in charge of public affairs, logistics, and recruitment." She rattled off proudly.

"Oh, my bad _assistant principal_ Mills."

"You do realize I'm your boss, right? I wouldn't mock my boss if I were you." Regina smirked walking into the room fully and sitting on the edge of one of the tiny five-year-old sized desks. Though she dwarfed the furniture, Regina somehow made that action graceful with her perfectly tailored skirt suit outlining the supple muscle of her legs: the two women ran together every morning and it certainly paid off.

"I wouldn't mock you if you acted like my boss." Tina shot back, though the brunette was technically the blonde's superior, they had been friends for so long that Tina was the only person able to poke through the woman's normally guarded exterior.

"Shut it, Barbie."

"Really? Barbie?" It was a rare occasion that Regina resorted to the college nickname for her friend.

The brunette rolled her eyes, "Make a round with me?" She suggested, already pushing off the miniature desk and heading to the door expecting Tina to follow behind her- which she did.

The pair strolled casually around the preschool hallway, Regina stopping every so often to correct some minor imperfection only she managed to find with the school she took so much pride in, before they moved onto the younger grades' hall. Right as they turned the corner to walk past the first grade classrooms, a blur of white and purple collided with Regina. The taller brunette stepped back, a practiced scowl already in place, while the juggernaut who had run into her shook her hair out of her face, already mumbling a rushed apology, "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry Ms. Mills-"

"Save it Ms. Blanchard." Regina cut the shorter brunette off with a hand, "I do hope you are more cautious when walking around your students." She admonished with a calculated glare before continuing on as though the interruption had never happened leaving an entertained Tina to smile sympathetically at the young teacher before hurrying to catch up with her friend.

She reached the older woman's elbow in time to hear her still angrily muttering about the collision while straightening her blazer, "Uncoordinated little, pathetic excuse for a teacher, looks like damn Bambi."

At that the blonde couldn't contain a wide grin, "Did you just call Mary Margaret 'Bambi'?"

Regina halted and gave her friend a questioning glance, "What else am I supposed to call her when she's looking like that?" She waved a hand dismissively where the other brunette had disappeared into her classroom.

"Looking like what?"

"Like the picture of innocence with her white dress- purple cardigan- and perfectly coordinated headband and Mary Janes?" Regina sighed in exasperation.

"You looked at her for two seconds, how did you notice that her accessories and shoes were coordinated?"

"It's Mary-Margret, when are they not?"

That earned a chuckle from both women as they found themselves approaching the main hallway again, Regina checked her sterling silver watch with a faint look of concern on her face, "It's nearly six. I had better get out front with the rest of the administration to greet the parents. I'm supposed to be giving directions. Seriously, what the hell am I, an assistant principal or a damn cruise director?" The brunette ranted, fluffing her already perfect hair.

"Have fun, Captain." Tina mocked with a half hearted salute, heading back to her classroom as Regina strode purposefully towards the front of the school, not even looking behind her as she flipped her best friend the bird and continued walking, the blonde's surprised laughter providing a soundtrack to her trek.

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 **A/N- Up next, Emma's coming!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N- Chapter two, I'll try and keep these update nice and regular. Thanks for reading!**

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Regina spent the next hour and a half smiling and shaking hands with various parents and guardians alike, she pointed out whichever classrooms they were looking for, and did her very best to avoid being touched by any child who looked too sticky for her liking.

In truth, Regina didn't dislike children, in fact she quite enjoyed them, she was just a little intimidated by them. The brunette could gain complete control of any situation she entered ever since she was sixteen. From board meetings to crowded bars, Regina was never out of her element, until it came to small children.

Something about the impressionability, and the inherent ability of parents to ruin their children had Regina running in the opposite direction. Her job at the school had arisen out of pure coincidence and now that she had worked her way so high up the food chain in such a small amount of time, Regina refused to leave until she reached the top- if only to prove that she could.

She had just shown a kind young couple towards the kindergarten classrooms when the school board's newest addition sidled up to Regina's side, far too close for her liking, "You look ravishing tonight love, new heels?" He questioned, scanning a lecherous gaze all the way down her body to her black heels, which were indeed new.

"Killian, how lovely to see you." She dismissed easily, her tone saying the opposite as she stepped away to maintain a comfortable amount of space between them.

He was not dissuaded by Regina's defensive maneuver, instead he chose to ignore it and plow on, "You know, I always did find these events rather mind numbing. If only there was a more _fulfilling_ way to pass the time."

Regina suppressed a disgusted shudder at his implication, but didn't hesitate in sending him a cutting smirk, "I'm sure you can find some way to entertain yourself."

Just as he opened his mouth- no doubt to reply with some margin of innuendo- his gaze shifted to just behind Regina and the comment died on his lips to be replaced with a smile that made Regina uneasy, "Maybe she can help me." He rose his eyebrows suggestively and the brunette spun around to see who Killian was leering at. Her eyes landed on a tall woman easily weaving through the crowd. Her hair was curled gently and fell past her shoulders to the middle of the back of her atrocious red pleather jacket. The determination in her eyes was what struck Regina the most, the blonde was a woman with a mission and hell if you stand in her way.

Just as Regina was letting her eyes trail down the woman's slim athletic frame, her gaze fixed on a bulge at the blonde's waist. Regina's blood ran cold, "Killian, she's carrying." Regina whispered.

"Yeah she is, love." He agreed with a wolfish grin.

Leave it to the womanizer to turn that into some sort of innuendo, "Not like that you idiot. She has a gun."

Killian's eyes widened as he took in the weapon, "Well love, that indeed seems to be an issue."

Before either could act, the woman had slipped through the front door and was marking a determined path towards the first grade classrooms. Without pausing to think, Regina left her post and trailed the woman.

For a moment she second guessed herself as she saw the woman make a turn towards Mary-Margret's classroom, but she pushed on. She had a duty to the faculty of the school, no matter how obnoxious they may be.

The woman paused for a moment, checking the name on the placard outside the classroom door, Regina flattened herself against the opposite wall and took tiny calculated steps until she was right behind the blonde. She stopped then, wanting the woman to make a move so she would have reason to act- and reason was given as the blonde reached her right arm across to her left hip where the weapon was holstered.

Before she could reach anything, Regina burst forth, using all her strength she tackled the blonde through the open door of Mary-Margret's classroom.

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 **A/N- What's the verdict, good, bad, ugly?**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N- I'm blown away by the response to the first two chapters, like my email is exploding with all the follows and favorites. Thank you all so much and enjoy!**

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Emma Swan was normally incredibly responsible when it came to her gun, she believed one could never be too careful- especially with a curious first grader running around. Her apartment had two small gun safe boxes, one right by the front door where she deposited her service weapon when she entered her home each evening, and one in her nightstand where she kept her own personal small pistol.

Emma Swan was also normally never late. But Emma Swan was the deputy sheriff of Storybrooke, Maine, and as such she was sometimes not in control of her schedule.

That's how she found herself running late to parent teacher conferences. She had been out on a call for the sheriff and ended up spending two hours driving the streets looking for an escaped Dalmatian. When she finally tracked the dog down and returned it, Emma hardly had time to speed over to the elementary school and attempt to finger comb her hair a bit before she was walking quickly into the school praying Henry's teacher would still be there.

She was in luck as she paused for a moment to check that she had the classroom right. Once she saw the teacher's name on the placard, Emma straightened up and was reaching across her body to withdraw Henry's writing assignment she wanted to discuss from her pocket when she instead found herself face down on the industrial carpet of the classroom.

Her muffled, "What the hell!?" Was lost as she tried to struggle out from beneath the hold that was pinning her to the ground.

"Regina?!" A high pitched voice from within the classroom exclaimed.

Emma's police training kicked in as she managed to roll herself over beneath her attacker, and with one well calculated jab to the ribs she heard a rush of air leave the brunette figure's lungs. Capitalizing on the moment, Emma used her abdominal strength to roll her and her attacker over so she was the one on top. She secured the woman's wrists in one hand and drew in a deep breath to attempt to calm her racing heart.

She didn't move from her spot pinning the woman's hips, but she took a moment to actually look at the brunette who jumped her and was pleasantly surprised at the classical beauty she found in the hard tan planes of the woman's face, marred only by a small scar on her upper lip.

The same high obnoxious voice from earlier drew Emma from her reverie, "What on earth are you two doing?"

Reluctantly, Emma broke eye contact with the woman beneath her to take in the teacher standing behind her desk as though it would protect her from the quarreling just inside the door.

"She tackled me!" Emma cried defensively, with the glare the teacher was shooting her, Emma felt like she was being reprimanded for not doing her homework.

"Regina! You tackled a parent?" Ms. Blanchard rose an eyebrow at the brunette.

"She has a gun!" The woman- Regina tried.

"You have a gun?" Mary Margret all but shrieked.

"I'm a police officer!"

The conversation made Emma's head spin and she felt like she was on an old soap opera where everything was being revealed. Next she would learn that Henry was swapped at birth with the brunette- Regina's son, and that Mary Margaret was a long lost relative.

But that didn't happen of course. Instead she was met with a snarling Regina, "You're a police officer?"

"Yeah. In fact I'm the deputy sheriff of Storybrooke."

"Well isn't that just dandy for you?" Regina replied venomously.

"It is." Emma smirked, still maintaining her grip on the woman's wrists, and attempting to ignore the warm feeling settling in her stomach as a result of straddling Regina's hips.

A pseudo staring contest ensued between the women, each refusing to be the first to give in until Mary Margaret interrupted them.

"So have we established that neither of you needs to attack the other?"

Regina cocked an eyebrow at Emma as though challenging the deputy sheriff to answer in the negative, rather than reply, the blonde lithely stood. She released the older woman's wrists in the process, but held out a hand to help her up.

Regina took one look at the proffered hand and rolled her eyes, pushing up on her own and straightening her skirt, "Even if you are a police officer, it is extremely irresponsible for you to have brought your weapon into a school."

"You thought I was a potential school shooter?" Emma began with a hint of a smile playing at the edge of her lips.

"That's really not relevant." The older woman tried to dismiss.

"You were going to singlehandedly take down a school shooter by sneaking up behind, and tackling them?" The hint of a smile turned into a full fledged smirk as she questioned the woman before her who was doing her best to not look indignant while fixing her hair.

Regina kept her mouth shut, choosing instead to glare at the blonde who surprised everyone with her next comment, "I can't decide if that's extremely brave or entirely stupid."

Regina rose an eyebrow considering the comment and trying to determine if it was sincere, "Well I'll just leave you to your conference."

With as much dignity as Regina could muster, she strode from the room and only paused when she heard Emma call out from behind her, "Hey Regina!"

"Yes, dear?"

As she turned, Regina suppressed her shock at finding the police officer directly behind her. She froze at the proximity, not even daring to breath as Emma's lips were inches away from her own.

With a suggestive smile bordering on a smirk, Emma reached both hands around Regina's waist. Dozens of scenarios ran through Regina's head (none of which were particularly appropriate in an elementary school) as she tried to figure out what would happen next. What she didn't expect was two slim hands to slide beneath her blazer, along the top edge of her skirt, and dip under the black material right in the middle of Regina's back.

Had she not been shocked still, the assistant principal would have objected to the intimate touch, but as it was, she remained rigid as Emma's face inched closer. Her lips coming fully into a smirk now as they landed right beside Regina's ear, "Your blouse is untucked."

The blonde's breath tickled the hairs on Regina's neck as she felt Emma tuck the offending item back into her skirt.

When she had finished her task, Emma let her hands drop to her sides and took a step back, clearly enjoying the effect she had on the now frazzled brunette.

Mary Margaret had enough sense to pretend as though she didn't witness the encounter at all, and instead sit at her desk staring intently at the folder in her hands.

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 **A/N- Thank you for you're reviews, I'm so glad that you guys are enjoying it thus far. What did y'all think?**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N- I'm glad you all enjoyed the beginning of this story and I am now giving into the writing of a romantic comedy, as we move from the 'meet cute', and onto the 'best friend montage' part of this story!**

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"I just mean, who carries a gun into an elementary school? It's entirely irresponsible!"

"Mhm, I totally agree." Tina nodded along. Which- since they were jogging- just looked like she was taking bouncier than normal steps.

"You're not listening." Regina accused.

"Of course I am!" The blonde said, tearing her eyes away from where she had been sizing up an attractive male jogger, "Let's go back to the part where you tackled a complete stranger. I liked that part of this morning's rant."

"I do not rant." The administrator huffed.

"Sure you don't." Tina said, rolling her eyes, "So what did this woman look like?"

"She was tall, blonde, and I don't know, I guess she's athletic. But that's not the point!"

Tina broke out into a teasing smile at the description, "And you say that you don't have a type, that sounds pretty similar to Danielle."

"We don't talk about Danielle."

" **You** don't talk about Danielle." The blonde stopped, bending over in half as she clutched a stitch in her side. They had been running for nearly an hour by now, and Tina wasn't doing well, she never knew how Regina managed to run so far while talking.

Reluctantly, Regina stopped beside her friend, still bouncing in place, "You know I don't talk about Danielle because she's-"

"A self-centered, egotistical, lying, good for nothing, cheating, bitch." Tina finished, knowing exactly what was coming.

"Exactly."

The teacher just ignored the hatred emanating off her best friend and instead focused on stretching out the cramp in her side, by now she was used to the instant change in attitude that would occur whenever Regina's ex-girlfriend was brought up.

"So did you get her number?"

Regina scoffed, finally stopping her bouncing to stretch out, giving up on any more of a workout this morning, "I didn't even get her name."

"What?" The blonde threw her arms up in outrage, "Regina! That's like the prince running into Cinderella and then donating her shoe to the Goodwill!"

"How am I the prince in this analogy? If anything, I'm a queen." Regina shot back, with fake outrage, "Well I guess it's just too late now."

"No way." Tina said. She was like a dog with a bone when it came to matchmaking, and she wasn't about to let a chance like this slip away. Especially with the track record Regina had with attracting partners, "We're finding this woman."

"How? With your super sleuthing skills, Nancy Drew?"

The blonde ignored the jab as she was already trekking across the park towards the diner where they always picked up coffee after their morning runs, "It's Storybrooke, not New York City, how hard could it be? Besides, you said she was going to Blanchard's room which means her kid is in first grade and I probably had him or her last year in Kindergarten."

Regina trailed her best friend reluctantly, listening to her reasoning, "You said she was blonde and hot-"

"I did not say hot." Regina interjected.

"Whatever, I only remember four mothers like that last year, and two of them were married so we can assume it's not one of them." Tina had a genuine smile now as she recalled the two possible women and their children. For Regina's own sake, she hoped that their mystery blonde wasn't Melanie Stewart, her son, Jackson, was a complete terror.

"Well I guess that's it, we can't do any more detective work today." Regina mumbled, trying to change the topic of conversation. Tina, in all of her good intentions, had the innate ability to make Regina feel like a bug under a microscope when she really got going like this.

"At least not until we get to school. I think a conversation with Bambi in the teacher's lounge may be in order."

Now the brunette truly had to put her foot down, "You cannot interrogate Ms. Blanchard!"

"We'll see." Tina grumbled into her coffee, the wheels in her head already turning full speed with a plan.

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She wasn't the only one who was planning, across town, Emma Swan walked into the police station with a little extra bounce in her step, and an extra wide smile on her face. She practically skipped right by the sheriff's office to grab a bear claw out of the pastry box on his desk.

"Good morning, Emma!" The sheriff called. He took in the extra vigor with which Emma bit into her treat, and instantly knew something was different, "What's gotten into you?"

"Nothing! I just had a great parent- teacher conference last night." She said, it wasn't a complete lie, but it wasn't quite the truth either.

"Yeah? Mary Margaret said it was pretty interesting." The sheriff smiled. Emma internally cursed herself, she should have known that her son's teacher would have told David about the commotion, they were married and they told each other practically everything.

"Yeah, well Henry's amazing so there was plenty to talk about." Emma expertly avoided the actual issue.

"That he is."

"So nothing else of interest happened at your conference?" David prodded with a knowing smile.

As one of Emma's best friends and her co worker, David was generally privy to any and all developments in Emma's life. He and Mary Margaret were the reason that she moved out of Boston and up to Storybrooke after Henry was born so that he could grow up around 'family'. Even if it was just the ragtag bunch of friends that had been close since college.

"I may have met someone." Emma finally let on.

"Yeah? What kind of a someone?"

"An incredibly attractive, leggy, brunette kind of someone." The deputy sheriff smiled.

"I knew you would like her! Just be careful with Regina, I've never seen Mary Margaret clash with someone as much as she does with that woman."

"Mary Margaret doesn't know how to clash."

"Trust me, Regina knows how to clash enough for them both."

Emma's smile just widened as she anticipated the impending struggle. Nothing easy was worthwhile, and Emma loved the chase.

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 **A/N- Thank you for your continued reading and especially for your kind reviews! I'm glad you all think it's off to a good start and enjoy the ambitious Emma, I kind of like her as the more romantically aggressive one in this story.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N-** **That all just means, thank you so much for your kind reviews, your continued readership, and your excitement for this story. I'm glad that you're all enjoying how light this story is, it certainly makes it easier to write!**

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Regina was just going over a budget proposal when she got an email from her secretary.

 _'Ms. Mills, Mrs. Blanchard just stopped by and wants to make sure that you got her memos this morning.'_

She barely managed to avoid rolling her eyes (she recently realized that she did it too much and it gave her headaches), and she began typing a reply:

 _'Lisa, you can tell Mrs. Blanchard that yes, I got her messages. All five of them.'_

The administrator shuffled some papers around on her desk to uncover the memos she had found in her school mailslot, pushed under her office door, slipped in with her authorization forms, and even one taped to her coffee cup.

The one on top was written in Mary Margaret's obnoxiously loopy handwriting- _Ms. Mills, don't forget tonight is the first PTO meeting of the year! We are meeting in the library at 6 sharp!_

Internally, Regina cursed her drive to succeed which had landed her as the administrative representative on the PTO for this year. She was being considered to replace the principal who was moving onto a position with the district next year, and as such, Regina was doing more than normal within the school.

Just her luck, Mary Margaret was the teacher in charge of the organization, and she took it deadly serious.

"Listen up Mills, I've got the goods." Tina said, entering Regina's office and closing the door behind her securely.

"Oh god." Regina dropped the pen she had been holding, and sat back in her chair, already sensing the impending headache, "Why do I get the feeling that I'm not going to like this?"

"Shh," Tina interrupted, "My kids are down for a nap so I only have twenty minutes."

"Please tell me that you didn't leave a bunch of five year olds unsupervised." Regina asked hopefully.

"Of course not, I put a third grader in charge."

The administrator took off her reading glasses and folded them carefully before running a hand over her tired brow, "For the sake of my own sanity and your job, I'm going to assume that you're joking."

"Yeah, that's probably for the best." Tina smirked, "So aren't you the least bit interested in what I came in here to tell you?"

The brunette sighed exhaustedly, "What is it?"

"I know who your mystery woman is!"

"She's not **my** mystery woma-"

"Do you want to know or not?"

"Fine."

"Thank you." Tina reclined in her seat across Regina's expansive desk, "Her name is Emma Swan, her son is Henry Swan, and he's currently in Mary Margaret's first grade class."

"Did you manage to pull her credit and find her social security number too?"

"No, did you want me to?" Tina asked with a smirk.

Regina just rolled her eyes, "This is ridiculous. I'm not going to pursue some random woman that I just happened to meet at parent teacher conferences."

"But why not?" Tina whined.

"Because." The administrator trailed off, not knowing quite how to justify herself to her best friend.

Thankfully, Regina was saved from having to think through her real motivation when the other kindergarten teacher, a young redhead who was still trying to figure out how to control her classroom, came bursting into the office.

"Ms. Bell, there's a bit of an emergency."

"Can't it wait until I'm done interrogating Regina?" Tina smiled threateningly at her friend.

"No, I don't think it can. There's crayons, and playdough, and the kids won't..." The poor teacher trailed off, she was avoiding looking at the assistant principal, and instead scuffing her feet against the carpet.

"Fine." The blonde relented, standing but leaning on the back of the chair to fix Regina with a warning gaze, "But we're not done with this."

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"Thank you so much for watching Henry tonight." Emma said, stooping to lace up her boots.

"Of course." Ruby smiled watching the frazzled blonde running around, "Do you need help loading up the baked goods into your minivan, or do you have a cub scout troop hiding somewhere in your 'mom bag' that can help you carry them?"

The deputy sheriff stopped, glaring at her friend, "It's just a PTO meeting Rubes."

"That's the first step, before you know it, you're going to be a den mother selling popcorn outside of a King Soopers."

"Now you've just lost it." Emma laughed.

"I'm not the one going to a PTO meeting to pick up chicks!"

The blonde rolled her eyes, double checking her hair in the mirror by the door, "It's chick singular. Not that is matters because she's not a chick, she's a woman."

"How do you even know she'll be there?"

"Just a hunch."

Ruby didn't miss the slight tilt in Emma's voice, they had known each other long enough that the brunette knew her friend was lying.

"Emms?"

"I might have called M&M once."

Ruby looked skeptically at her friend, "Emms."

"Or twice."

Now all it took was a raised eyebrow from Ruby.

"Alright, I called her three times and sent five texts." Emma said, avoiding meeting the gaze of her babysitter, "I just wanted to make sure that Regina would be there."

"You've got it bad, Swan."

Emma ignored her, "Henry, come say goodbye, I'm heading out."

One eager hug from her son later, and Emma was on her way for operation PTO.

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 **A/N- Prepare for more flirty Emma, up next ;).**

 **Love, Ms. Informed.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N- Good morning, without further ado, PTO meeting- part 1!**

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"Mills, stop stalling and get your hot ass down to the library!" Tina admonished, she was just heading out for the night, having wrapped up a department meeting. The blonde knew her friend absolutely despised being forced to go to the PTO meetings and would probably be stalling. As such, she stopped by the administrator's office on her way out to make sure Regina didn't stall too much.

"I'm going!" Regina yelled back out the door, gathering up her purse. She was already on her way down, not wanting to arrive too early, but not wanting to be late for the first meeting either.

Tina was already out of the building by the time that Regina had gotten herself out of the office.

Her heels echoed resoundingly on the industrial carpet all the way down the hall from the front office to the library across the school. She had always thought it was incredibly irresponsible for the elementary school to have concrete underneath the carpeting, but she couldn't argue against the money it saved them.

Regina reached the library at exactly 5:54, six minutes left until the meeting would start.

They had cleared the main area of tables and instead set up rows of chairs, snacks were set up along the edge on tables covered with plastic cloths. Regina was surprised to see a decent amount of parents already milling about, Mary Margaret was standing up at the front of the cleared area at a podium with her signature Bambi smile in place.

Regina took a seat in the last row of chairs near the end, and decided to spend the final few minute before the start of the meeting people watching.

Her attention caught on a group of women standing near the snack table holding paper cups of punch. They were all wearing dresses and heels, most had their hair straightened glass straight. Their high pitched laughter and thin wrists made the brunette mentally liken them to gazelles. How she longed for a lion in this moment.

Regina's observation was interrupted by the sound of wood smacking on wood.

"Attention, everyone, please find your seats!" Where the cardigan wearing munchkin found a gavel, Regina would never know.

There was a rush as the gazelles moved to the front row of chairs.

"Is this seat taken?" A familiar voice asked.

Regina looked up to be confronted with a smiling blonde. The woman didn't wait for a response before taking the final seat in the row beside Regina.

The brunette was so taken off balance by the sudden appearance of the woman she hadn't seen since she had tackled her a couple of days prior that she couldn't help the first thought out of her mouth, "Do you own any other jackets?"

"I do, do you ever not wear a skirt suit?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact-"

"Something you wanted to share, Ms. Mills?" Mary Margaret asked. It wasn't often that she could get retaliation against the older woman, and she reveled in every opportunity she got.

"No, please continue." Regina practically growled back.

Emma pressed a fist to her lips to conceal her laughter at Regina's scolding, the brunette just shot a glare at her.

After a moment, Emma took her fist away, but didn't lower her arm entirely. Rather, she extended her arm to lay it across the back of Regina's chair. She was careful to make sure that it didn't touch Regina- not yet at least- and tried to keep her large smirk from showing.

"What do you think you're-"

"Shhh." Emma whispered, "There's a meeting going on."

Regina was dumbfounded by the woman's blatant moves, and sat half an inch forward in her seat so as to avoid any accidental pleather contact. Just knowing that the tacky jacket was so close to her was practically making Regina break out in hives.

Or at least that's what she attributed the tingling to.

Regina remained that way, sitting just forward, her back ramrod straight for the first half hour of the meeting. She was determined to remain that way for the duration of the unending rant Mary Margaret was on.

But her plan was impeded when her cell phone buzzed with a text message. It was a complaint from Tina about the new evaluations that all the teachers had to file on every student.

The administrator scowled as she tapped out a response. She knew how time consuming and pointless the evaluations were, but they were something that originated all the way at the district level and just fell to her to implement.

"You know that if you scowl too much, your face might stick like that." A warm breath said.

Regina jumped at the sensation, in her annoyance she had slipped back and was resting against the back of the seat, her shoulders pressed against the red jacket covered arm of the blonde woman.

She pushed down the urge to move away again, convincing herself that it was because moving would acknowledge that Emma had won.

Regina was just turning her head to respond in kind when she found herself much closer to Emma than she expected, 'How does she always manage to sneak up like that?' She wondered breathlessly. Her eyes flickered from Emma's eyes to her mouth.

She didn't quite know how such thin pink lips could look so absolutely kissable.

The brunette opened her mouth to reply, but ended up just closing it when Emma refused to draw any further away.

"Yes?" The sheriff said, with a slight smirk, enjoying the obvious effect she had on the older woman.

Regina was saved by the bell as Mary Margaret pounded her gavel once more, announcing the end of the PTO meeting. The brunette hadn't absorbed a single bit of information, but she was pretty sure that she had gotten signed on to at least three different committees.

* * *

 **A/N- Hope you're all still enjoying this story, thanks for sticking with it! Stay tuned for PTO meeting, part 2!**

 **Love, Ms. Informed**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N- this was hands down my favorite chapter so far to write so hopefully you all will like it too!**

* * *

 _Regina was saved by the bell as Mary Margaret pounded her gavel once more, announcing the end of the PTO meeting. The brunette hadn't absorbed a single bit of information, but she was pretty sure that she had gotten signed on to at least three different committees._

* * *

As soon as was socially acceptable, Regina stood and tried to exit the row, but found herself blocked by Emma.

"Can I help you?" Regina asked, annoyed. She was already pulling her coat on to make a quick exit.

"No, but I think I can help you."

"Excuse me?" The administrator wasn't quite sure what she was more annoyed with at this point, the blonde preventing her from leaving, her coat sleeve which had apparently folded in on itself so she couldn't pull it on easily, or Mary Margaret gesturing for the brunette to come over and talk with her.

"Let me, help you." Emma said, enunciating each word carefully.

For the second time that night, and third time that week, Regina found her personal space interrupted by the deputy sheriff. This time, though, the brunette was determined to hold her ground as she remained stock still and Emma reached around her. The younger woman seamlessly took hold of the stubborn jacket sleeve, and fixed it, holding the material steady at the shoulder so Regina could slip her arm through.

"Most people tend to say thank you after someone does them a favor." Emma smirked at Regina's speechless stare.

"I'm not most people."

Emma couldn't help but scan an appraising gaze up and down the brunette, "That much is obvious."

Regina ignored the obvious come on and scooted around the blonde to where Mary Margaret was impatiently waiting.

"Mrs. Blanchard, what can I do for you?"

The younger brunette looked down at the clipboard she was resting on her hip, "Because we need administrative support, you will now be assisting with the canned food drive, the movie night under the stars, and both field days."

"I'm sorry, movie night under the stars? What is this, a high school prom?"

Mary Margaret's eyes hardened, though coming from the bubbly teacher, it was hardly a difference, "It's out on the soccer field at night, so it's under the stars."

"Of course." Regina said, her eyes lifted to over the small teacher's shoulder where she saw Emma standing with some of the gazelle women from earlier.

She didn't know why, but it gave her a sick feeling.

"- so we'll begin work immediately on the canned food drive and we'll all take shifts throughout the next week." Mary Margaret finished.

Regina scowled as she realized that she had missed most of what the midget had been saying, but she caught that she would be collecting cans. More importantly, her scowl deepened as she saw one of the gazelles reach out and put a hand on Emma's shoulder.

The brunette wasn't typically the jealous type (especially not of people she hardly knew) but now watching the contact, and the way Emma made the women laugh, she couldn't help the slight clenching of her fists.

"Regina?" The teacher repeated.

 _'Damn it. I must have missed another question.'_ Regina thought, "Yes, that sounds like a good idea." She said, hoping that it was the appropriate response.

And she was rewarded by a smile from Mary Margaret. Then to her horror, the teacher whirled around, "Emma, can you come here for a second?"

"Yeah, M&M?" The blonde asked once she was standing with them.

Regina considered the nickname, _so the two knew each other?_

"Would you be able to meet next week so we can get going on the canned food drive?"

"Of course."

"Great. Regina, you'll be there too?"

"I'll see if I can make time for it." Regina replied dismissively, already walking away from the women with the intention of getting home and pouring herself a healthy glass of cider as soon as she could.

She made it out the door and was just setting off across the parking lot when a figure in a red jacket jogged to catch up to her.

"What do you need, Ms. Swan?" Regina sighed in annoyance, not stopping her determined walk.

"Well it's late and it's dark so I just figured you shouldn't be walking across the parking lot alone."

At that explanation, Regina stopped, turning on her heel to regard the blonde. They were standing under a street light which was quite nearly washing out Emma's pale complexion, but she still somehow looked flawless. Regina decided that it was about time she went on the offensive, "That's quite chivalrous, but I think your services are more needed by individuals who aren't myself."

Emma scoffed, "You mean the welcoming committee? They're a little too Stepford Wives for my liking."

Regina raised an eyebrow, secretly a little surprised by the sheriff's reference. Not wishing to draw out Emma's small victory, the brunette turned and continued on her way to her Benz in the back of the parking lot. She expected Emma to follow, and sure enough the low shuffle of Emma's boots on the pavement echoed after her heels.

They didn't say anything further until they reached the black car and Regina was pulling her keys out from her purse, "Thank you for accompanying me, Ms. Swan." Regina said, dismissing the blonde.

Emma either didn't realize that was her cue to leave, or she just ignored it, "You can call me Emma."

"Yes, well thank you, Emma."

The blonde flashed a quick dimpled smile while Regina unlocked her car.

"Is there something else?" Regina asked, opening her car door and looking to end the exchange on her terms.

"Yeah, do you want go out with me? Like on a date?"

The concise language threw Regina off. It reminded her so much of Danielle and her straightforward attitude, that her heart physically ached. She must have gotten lost in the memory because Emma was asking again, "Regina?"

"No." The brunette said, sliding down into the driver's seat.

"Excuse me?" Emma stooped down, putting one hand on the door, and the other on the frame of the car so Regina couldn't shut it on her, "Are you playing hard to get or something?"

The administrator rolled her eyes as if talking with Emma were a great annoyance, "Ms. Swan," She began, internally smirking at the way Emma's face fell the slightest bit at the use of her last name, "I'm not some immature twenty something, I don't 'go out' with people, and I don't play games."

Emma's eyes took on a determined glint, "I don't play games either."

The brunette took a moment, searching out a sincerity in Emma's gaze that she never found in Danielle's, "Alright, I'll go on a date with you."

"Really?" Emma asked in surprise.

"Yes, really. Now get off my car before you smudge it with your finger prints."

* * *

 **A/N- what do you think? I figured it was about time for Regina to come into her own :). Thank you all for your awesome reviews, they're really encouraging, and also for sticking with this story for a full week!**

 **Also, dc- 4me, you're right Emma is a deputy, I must have just made a slip last chapter, thanks for keeping me honest ;)**

 **Love, Ms. Informed**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N- Here we go, the date part 1. I truly hate writing dates almost as much as I hate reading them so hopefully you will accept my cheating pseudo date.**

* * *

"Where is she taking you?"

"Some seafood place in the harbor."

"You should order lobster."

Regina regarded her friend over the rim of her glass, "Oh?"

"But then you'll have to put out." Tina giggled.

"You're incorrigible!" The brunette chucked one of her discarded heels weakly across her living room at the teacher.

The blonde just chuckled even more, "And you need to get laid."

Regina downed the remainder of her drink and stood to deposit her empty glass back in her sink, "Why are we friends?"

"Because you love me."

Tina followed with her own glass, she had been trained well enough by now to know better than to leave dirty glassware around Regina's home.

"What are you going to wear?"

"I have no idea."

"What about that dark purple dress?" Tina said, already waltzing away towards Regina's bedroom, and more importantly, her closet, forcing Regina to follow, "It goes great with your skin tone."

"Tina, what are you-"

"Put this on!" The blonde called, she had disappeared into the closet, and soon a dress was flying out, and Regina took quick steps forwards to catch it.

"It's nearly eleven, I'm not doing this right now!" Regina protested halfheartedly.

Tina just steamrolled on as if she had not heard, "And this one with these heels, and the red one." She emerged from the closet, arms weighed down with the selected garments and she laid them out on Regina's bed, sitting down on the edge expectantly.

"This is ridiculous." Regina complained, already toeing out of her socks- she didn't want to participate in the silly impromptu fashion show, but she knew she wouldn't win against the determined blonde.

"Shut up and strip."

Regina rolled her eyes as she bent down to take off her yoga pants obediently.

* * *

They ended up agreeing on the dark purple dress because it did look great with Regina's skin tone. She paired it with her new black heels that she wore the night she met Emma, hair perfectly coiffed and she was ready waiting in the front hall to be picked up.

Emma arrived exactly on time, knocking on the door and rocking back on her heels as she waited.

She had chosen simple black slacks and a green silk blouse. Ruby described it as 'not too butch' which the blonde had taken as approval. Though she was blown away when she saw Regina.

When the brunette opened the door, Emma just stood there shocked for a long moment before dragging her jaw up off the floor long enough to greet her with a sincere, "You look beautiful."

The brunette just smiled, "Good evening to you as well." She stepped out of the house, pulling the door shut behind her and giving Emma a good once over, "You look quite beautiful as well."

Emma felt about twelve years old as she blushed at the compliment, "Thanks. Are you ready?"

A nod from Regina, and they were off. Emma opened the door to her yellow bug, waiting until the administrator slid in before she shut it and jogged around to her own side. Regina didn't miss the bounce in her step or the car seat still strapped into the immaculate back seat.

When Emma slipped the key in the ignition, the radio came on full force, _"_ _Only thing I wanna do tonight is drink you like a Spanish wine, let you let that head of mine keep spinning, spinning around-"_

The blonde turned the volume knob down harshly as quickly as she could, but it was too late and already Regina was trying to maintain her laughter.

"You listen to country music?"

One sideways look at Regina's growing smile, and Emma had to let out a little chuckle of her own, "Yeah." She put the car in gear and pulled away from the curb, "It's a bit of a guilty pleasure I guess." "

At least you have the sense to call it a guilty pleasure." Regina smiled.

"I learned that real quick." Emma laid one hand easily on the steering wheel, the other resting loosely on the gearshift. Such a nonchalant posture while driving would put Regina on edge, if it had been anyone else behind the wheel, "My second foster father, he was the one who showed me country music, but we only ever listened to it in his car. His wife absolutely hated it."

Emma was used to just putting everything out there, she found it to be an easy way to vet out people's true characters, and she held her breath slightly waiting to see what Regina's response would be.

"Well I can only hope that you haven't passed that same unfortunate taste onto your son."

Emma let her breath out in a little relieved puff and felt herself relaxing into her seat, "Oh no, Henry's totally more of a classic rock guy. The kid's the center of my whole world, but no matter what I try, he won't get on board with country."

They shared a laugh which seemed to physically lighten the air of the little yellow car, and Regina felt herself opening up just as easily. And so it went, the easy banter of the two women who felt entirely at ease with each other. There was none of the trademark '20 questions' feel of most first dates, but rather the natural flow of engaging conversation.

When they pulled up back at the brunette's home and Emma walked her all the way up to the front door, Regina didn't think twice in her next question.

"Would you like to come in for a drink?"

* * *

 **A/N- what will Emma do? Stay with me to find out.**

 **Thank you all for the reviews, favs and follows, have an excellent day, I'm happy to have been a part of it!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N- Here you go, I hope the wait wasn't too much for you all to handle :).**

* * *

 _When they pulled up back at the brunette's home and Emma walked her all the way up to the front door, Regina didn't think twice in her next question._

 _"Would you like to come in for a drink?"_

* * *

The deputy sheriff groaned slightly, both of them knew exactly what Regina was asking, and as much as she wanted to go in for a drink and whatever followed, she had Henry to think about.

"I really, really would, but I've got to get home."

"Henry." The brunette said, her eyes soft.

"My friend Ruby's with him, but he always wants to stay up for me."

"I understand." For the first time with one of the women that Emma was dating, it seemed as though Regina truly did understand, and respect it, "Perhaps next time."

"Definitely next time." Emma chuckled, and they stood there a beat longer, Regina with one hand on the door handle, the other holding her clutch, and Emma with both hands pushed in the pockets of her black leather jacket, "I suppose I had better get going."

"Alright." The administrator smiled, she was enjoying watching the struggle Emma seemed to be going through as she shuffled from one foot to the other. The blonde seemed to be fighting a tough battle in her head as to her next move and finally, she set her feet solidly as she apparently came to a decision.

She took one step forward to eliminate the distance between them, her hands emerged from her pockets, one coming to rest on Regina's hip, and the other on her cheek.

"I'm going to kiss you now." Emma whispered seconds before she dipped her head down to connect their lips. Her kiss was soft and gentle, she didn't feel some giant spark like the insipid romance movies promised, but rather a kind of giddy warmth flooded her from her lips out until her entire body was degrees hotter.

When she moved to pull away, Regina's arms went around her neck to hold her in place, deepening their kiss. Regina reveled in the feeling of Emma's lips parting to allow her tongue access, she knew the blonde had to go home to her son, but she wasn't some tween with a crush- if she was getting a goodnight kiss, it would damn well be a good one.

After a moment, she pulled back, a smug smile spreading across her face at the blissful expression decorating Emma's. The blonde still had her eyes shut and her lips parted slightly, her cheeks beginning to dimple in the smallest trace of an euphoric grin.

"Now I really have to go." Emma laughed, stroking her thumb across Regina's cheek.

The administrator leant into the touch, and Emma couldn't help but press one more quick kiss to her lips before dropping her hand.

"I'll call you." The deputy sheriff promised, stepping off the porch, and backing down the drive.

"I'll be waiting for it."

* * *

"Ma!"

"Hey kid." Emma smiled, she sat down on the edge of his bed, pulling the superhero comforter up over his chest so he was tucked in securely, "Did you have a good time with Auntie Ruby?" She asked, she heard the door click shut and knew that Ruby must have just gathered her stuff and made her exit for the night.

"Yeah, we drew and played cars and she let me watch the zoo movie."

"She did?"

"Uhuh!" Henry said, barely covering a yawn with his small fist, "Did you have fun with your new friend?"

Emma touched her lips, remembering the mindblowing kiss she had just experienced. She hadn't even realized it, but Regina's deep red lipstick had been smudged across her own lips when she came through the door of her apartment just a few minutes prior. It had earned her quite the teasing from Ruby that she was sure she would never live down, but it was well worth it.

"Yeah Hen, I had a really good time." Then adding in as an afterthought, "Maybe you could meet her sometime if you want to."

He shrugged noncommittally, a move he had no doubt learned from her. Six years old, and he was already a master of hiding his emotions. She knew he was excited regardless of what he actually said, he always wanted to meet her dates, though it was the rare occasion that one lasted long enough to make the acquaintance.

A thought occurred to her though as she was picking up the novel they had been powering through together to read him the next chapter, "Henry, have you ever met Ms. Mills?"

"Yeah." The boy said, snuggling into her side so he could watch the words on the page as Emma read them aloud, "She used to visit Ms. Bell's class all the time last year."

"Really?" Emma vaguely remembered Henry's kindergarten teacher from the year before. Mainly she just remembered the woman was young, blonde, and definitely attractive, she couldn't help the slight pang of jealously that rolled through her.

"Mhm, whenever we had nap time they would have 'adult time'."

The response from the boy placated her enough for now, Regina and Ms. Bell probably weren't anything more than close friends who took time out of the school day to gossip, "What do you think of her?"

"I dunno, she's kinda scary."

Emma had to suppress a grin at that, she could easily see the intense brunette intimidating the kids, "Why do you say that?"

"One time Jimmy went to her office and when he came back, he was crying."

"Isn't Jimmy the same boy who put a cricket in Ms. Bell's desk?"

"Yeah." Henry giggled, remembering the incident that had his teacher jumping out of her chair and using words that he had been told never to say.

Emma just shook her head, making a note not to let Henry have any playdates with Jimmy anytime soon, "Are you ready for our story?"

"Ready!"

"Ok. _Life at the Burrow was as different as possible from life on Privet Drive_." Emma began, settling in against the pillows with Henry for her favorite part of the day.

* * *

 **A/N- What did you think of slightly more aggressive Regina? I think it was about time. Thank you for reviewing, following, favoriting and reading. Drop a review, let me know what you're thinking and what else you want to see in this story.**

 **Also, cookies to you if you can identify what story Emma and Henry are reading!**

 **Love, Ms. Informed.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N- You just about all guessed it right, it was indeed Harry Potter (specifically the Chamber of Secrets) so cookies to you all. I'm glad you enjoyed a more aggressive Regina, for now we're shifting gears slightly to something adorable.**

* * *

"Oh my goodness, you totally got some!"

"Ms. Bell!"

Tina ignored the admonishment as well as the glare her friend was shooting her as she made her way across the hall, "It's so true, though! Isn't it?"

The blonde perched on the edge of the folding table which had been set up in the main entrance of the school where Regina was seated. The table had a bright sign on the front (handmade by Mary Margaret) which read 'Canned Food Drive', and Regina had a cardboard box where she was collecting the cans. Thus far she had five.

"Whether it's true or not is irrelevant right now!" Regina shot a look around at the teachers milling about in the hallway and the kids still streaming in, "We'll talk later."

"Because you so got some!" Tina smirked, "You're practically glowing."

As much a Regina wanted to refute that comment, she felt pounds lighter since the kiss two nights ago. She didn't doubt that the difference was noticeable, the only slight damper was that Emma still hadn't called her back.

She chalked it up to a busy weekend, and hoped she would get a call tonight.

"I'm so not having this conversation with you right now!" Regina hissed, turning to a small girl with glasses placing a couple of cans on the table, "Thank you, sweetie."

Regina dropped the cans in the box at her feet, and when she sat up straight again, she was confronted with a thin brunette boy who put his own cardboard box down on the ground. He rolled the contents around carefully before he began setting cans out in front of her. The cans were covered in colorful paper and each one had a letter written on it.

Tina and Regina exchanged a look at the strange, silent actions, but remained quiet themselves to see where this was going.

The boy himself was scrawny with his jeans just barely hanging on his slight frame thanks to his belt cinched on a home-punched hole. His hair was floppy and in desperate need of a cut, though it must be the boy's prefered style as he had no problem with shaking it out of his eyes from time to time.

He didn't say a word until all the cans were lined up and Regina tried to read them, they spelled, 'etaddnoces'.

She looked questioningly up at the boy, only to find his back to her as a familiar blonde was whispering to him with her head just poking from the corner, "No, Henry, the numbers go the other way!"

Once Emma raised her gaze from her son, she blushed, realizing she had been spotted. Her blush only deepened as she came out from behind the corner, "Why don't you run along to class, kid?" She said, patting Henry on the back once she reached the table.

The scrawny boy shot a calculating look at Regina, as if making sure she was alright to leave with his mother, before dutifully trotting off along the hallway.

Regina waved a hand at the cans in front of her while Emma tucked her hands in the back pocket of her jeans, a nervous habit Regina was coming to find quite endearing, "A word puzzle?"

"It was supposed to spell 'second date' but he laid them out backwards."

"That's so adorable!" Tina half squealed, drawing both women out of their little staring contest. Regina had entirely forgotten the presence of her friend in the excitement of seeing Emma again.

"Yeah, well I tried." Emma smiled at Regina, "It's nice to see you again Ms. Bell." She nodded.

"Call me Tina." She insisted, "It's great to see you too."

The three hovered in awkward silence a moment, Tina's gaze darting between the two who couldn't seem to tear their eyes away from each other.

"Tina, should you be getting to your class? School starts soon." Regina suggested, sparing her friend only a quick glance.

"You're right." Tina said, reluctantly getting off the edge of the table and walking away, "Bye, Emma." The blonde smiled, she desperately wanted to see the end of whatever was going on with the two, but knew Regina would end her if she didn't take a hint.

"So he put the numbers out backwards?" Regina asked with a smile playing at the edges of her lips.

"Yeah." The blonde grabbed the first can with the 's' on it and spun it around so Regina could see the '1' markered on the back, "I thought it would be easier for him to lay out, but he got the one on the wrong end."

"It was a valiant effort." Regina commended. The bell rang signaling the start of the school day and the hall quickly emptied of the remaining students and teachers. The brunette stood to end her shift collecting cans.

Mary Margaret would be taking over as her class went to gym and she wasn't needed for that hour block. The younger brunette showed up just in time to cut off Emma's question, "You never did-"

"Good morning Emma, Ms. Mills." The teacher smiled, she had no idea what she just walked in on, or why Regina was staring daggers at her, but she just assumed it was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Hey M&M." Emma greeted, Regina's only acknowledgement was a stiff nod.

"What are these?" Mary Margaret asked, rounding the table to look at the jumble of letters decorating the cans.

Emma was quick to cover, though she had talked out her plans with David and he was quite excited for her, she knew that Mary Margaret was another beast entirely. She wasn't opposed to Emma's pursuing the administrator, she just wanted no part in it, convinced that it would end badly, "Cans, Henry and I raided the pantry last night for some to bring in for you."

"That's so great Emma!" The brunette smiled genuinely pleased at the effort.

Regina scoffed at the unbridled bubbly happiness rolling off Mary Margaret in waves as she turned to walk back towards the front office, hoping Emma would accompany her. She wasn't disappointed as the deputy sheriff fell into step beside her.

"So what do you say, will you go on another date with me?" Emma had her best unsure puppy dog face on with her hands still firmly shoved in her back pockets.

Regina never had the option to say no, "I would love to." She agreed, enjoying the smile that spread slowly across the blonde's features.

"Great, I'll call you later to figure out the details, I should probably let you get to work."

"Probably." Regina agreed reluctantly, stopping outside the office.

"I guess I'll see you later."

The administrator smiled at Emma's uncertainty, she shot a look down the hallway quickly to ensure it was deserted, save for Mary Margaret who seemed too busy adding Emma's cans to the box to notice anything, before Regina eliminated the space between them and pressed a quick kiss to Emma's lips.

"See you." Regina smiled, she left Emma standing, stunned in the middle of the hallway as she retreated to her office with an extra sway in her hips.

Mary Margaret was similarly stunned, though she seemed to get over herself quicker, "Emma Swan!" She angrily hissed, "This is an elementary school for christ's sake!"

* * *

 **A/N- What did you think?**

 **Also, thank you all for the follows, favorites, reviews, happy** **fuzzies, and anything else you've been sending my way. Hope you're still enjoying the story and stick around for one of my favorite chapters coming up next!**

 **Love, Ms. Informed**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N- I'm glad you all liked the cheesy cans, I hoped it would be adorable! This chapter fast forwards a little bit, but don't worry, I didn't skip anything too big.**

* * *

Two weeks, four dates, and two glorious nights later, and Emma was ready to ask the big question. Or rather the two big questions. She just had to find the proper time to do it, and she had a plan. It all started in the school library.

"The second meeting of the Canned Food Committee is now called to order." Mary Margaret said with as much authority as she could muster from the head of the table.

"Our first order of business is that my gavel has gone missing. So please keep your eyes open, and let me know if you spot it."

Regina couldn't help but let her lips curl in a slight smirk. It was not unnoticed by the blonde beside her, "You stole her gavel, didn't you?"

"I can neither confirm, nor deny that." Regina intoned.

"You're evil." Emma said, reaching around to lay her arm along the back of Regina's chair. What had begun as a presumptuous come on, now became a regular occurrence for the two women at these meetings.

"- and thus far, we've only collected about two hundred cans." Mary Margaret continued, shuffling some papers around, they were color coded with highlighters, "So what we need to do now is figure out how to motivate these kids to bring in more cans."

Emma smiled as her opportunity arose, "One of my friends is a teacher in Boston, to motivate kids to fundraise at her school the administrators do crazy stuff." Regina shot her a warning look as she elaborated 'crazy', "They wear costumes to school, or they eat bugs, one year they all shaved their heads."

"No way in hell any of that's happening." Regina quickly dismissed.

"Swear jar!" Mary Margaret interjected.

The administrator's glare hardened as she chose her words carefully with the sole intention to annoy the teacher, "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

The swear jar was something that had been jokingly implemented last year when Killian was part of his first administration meeting. Their assistant principal in charge of finance, Mrs. Lucas (affectionately called 'Granny') had put a coffee cup in the middle of the table which was dubbed the 'swear jar'.

Mary Margaret looked critically at the older woman a moment before giving up, "I don't think any of those will be approved by the rest of administration." The teacher said.

"Fine." Emma conceded, "How about this, one year all the administration slept on the roof of the school for a night once the kids reached their quotas."

"That's ridiculous."

Mary Margaret smiled at Regina's discomfort, "That could work though. It doesn't take up school time or resources. There's no property damage, I'll bet we could get administration on board with it."

"I don't know." Regina started.

"I'll bring it to the principal tomorrow." Mary Margaret interrupted.

From that comment, at least the administrator thought she had some hope. Their principal Mr. Gold found Mary Margaret to be as grating as Regina did. He and her shared a twisted satisfaction in messing with the teacher.

Unfortunately that sense of satisfaction lost and a week later, with the kids more motivated than ever to bring in the required number of cans, Regina found herself on the roof of the school in a skirt and heels trying in vain to pitch a tent. It was eight at night, and she, Mr. Gold, Killian, and Mrs. Lucas were all setting up tents on the roof.

Rather Regina was cursing angrily at her death trap of poles and canvas.

"Do you want a hand, love?" Killian asked, and she could practically hear the oil dripping from his voice.

"No thanks, I think I can manage."

Thankfully, Andy came to her rescue, "You know, I think that as the intern, any and all things tent related falls to me."

Regina smiled gratefully at the young man who didn't wait for a response before he started pitching her tent. Killian retreated, adequately shunned.

"Thanks for that, Andy."

"Of course!" He seemed genuinely happy, and he was one of the few people that could get away with that around Regina without her snarky comments. Though he was only working at the school part time for a few months while he was pursuing a degree in educational administration, Regina truly enjoyed having him around the office.

He had her tent all set up in an embarrassingly short amount of time.

"Well, you have time up here all night!" Andy said with a smile that bordered on a smirk.

Regina knew she liked the kid for a reason, "I'll try to make it without killing anyone."

"If you do, hide the body until the morning and I'll help you hide it tomorrow."

Andy left then, with another sly smile and a wave as he retreated down the steps.

The administrators talked for a short amount of time before they all retired to their respective tents for the evening. Regina planned on sneaking out of her tent in the middle of the night to sleep in her office and return early in the morning before anyone even noticed. Her plan, however, was interrupted by the zipper of her tent being slowly undone.

Regina grabbed the heels she had discarded, and held one high above her head, prepared to bring it down with force at her intruder. That proved unnecessary though, as a shock of blonde hair pushed it's way through the opening in the flap.

"Jesus Emma!" The administrator sighed, sagging slightly and dropping her shoe to her side.

"Were you going to hit me with your heel? You have a serious problem with irrationally trying to attack me."

"Shut up and get in the tent, Swan." Regina rolls her eyes, scooting aside so the blonde can squeeze into the tight space, "Before someone sees you."

"Relax, I snuck up here with the school librarian. She's in that big red tent."

Emma fits, but the large backpack she's got with her is a harder squeeze.

"Oh my god, Ms. French and Mr. Gold?" The brunette asks, half shocked, half amused.

"Yeah I guess." Emma replied, dumping her backpack and trying to close the tent behind her.

"What in the hell are you doing up here?" Regina asks incredulously as Emma somehow finds a way to arrange her gangly limbs to sit cross legged, only kneeing Regina slightly.

"It's our one month anniversary." Emma replied as though it answered everything.

"And?"

"And that means it's been four weeks and ten dates since you tackled me at parent teacher conferences." The blonde said, pulling items out of her backpack and spreading them out in the limited space of the tent, "Which means it's time to celebrate."

"With cupcakes?" Regina eyed the pastry box Emma had just put out.

"That is indeed one way. But mainly I just wanted to ask you something."

Emma shifted, rummaging in her backpack, before shifting to rest on one knee.

"Regina, this month has been amazing."

The brunette was not having any of it, "What on earth are you doing?"

"Just let me get through this."

* * *

 **A/N- Guesses what's coming next?**

 **As always, thanks for your amazing support. To everyone who dropped disparaging comments about Mary Margaret ('you annoying pest' and 'cockblocker' to name a few), definitely made my day, those were hilarious!**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N- I loved your guesses for the end of the last chapter, hopefully you didn't die in too much suspense waiting for this!**

* * *

 _Emma shifted, rummaging in her backpack, before shifting to rest on one knee._

 _"Regina, this month has been amazing."_

 _The brunette was not having any of it, "What on earth are you doing?"_

 _"Just let me get through this."_

* * *

"Will you be exclusive with me?"

Regina just froze for a moment, in the cramped space, "Are you serious?"

"Entirely." The blonde smiled, "I know this is sort of ridiculous, but you're Regina Freaking Mills, and I just want to know that you're mine. So will you officially and unequivocally be my girlfriend?"

It took five excruciating seconds. Five seconds of Emma cramping on her knee with her most pathetic puppy dog expression on her face and Regina watching her warily before the brunette finally made a move.

"Of course I will be, you idiot." Regina said, shaking her head.

Emma's smile in response is so breathtakingly free, Regina gets lost in it for all of a moment before she's staring up at the ceiling of the tent because Emma has tackled her in an intense hug.

They haven't said the 'L' word yet, neither one is anywhere near ready for that step. But Emma knows that this is the closest she'll get for a while. She knows that when a woman like Regina Mills smiles and calls you an idiot, says your name like it's safe in her mouth, and looks at you like you've hung the moon, that's enough for now.

So Emma pulls back from their hug just far enough to crash their lips together because this is the way she says it back. After a moment, she disconnects from Regina, taking the in all the messy hair, blown eyes, and reddened lips that is the woman below her, and Emma has no second thoughts about the next words from her mouth.

"I want you to meet my son."

Just as Regina has no second thoughts with her answer, "I would love to meet him."

That night Emma convinces Regina to stay on the roof in their too small tent, and they were finally able to spend their first night together where neither woman has to leave neither because of Henry or work the next morning, or any other reason.

It's the first time in a while that Regina falls asleep beside someone else, not having that luxury since she had Danielle. But Emma was so different.

Her arm carefully laid over Regina's hip was light and reassuring, not possessive like Danielle's always was. And the press of the blonde's bare ribs against her spine was one of the most comforting things she had felt in a while.

Emma shifted in her sleep, pulling Regina closer, and rubbing her nose into the juncture of the brunette's neck. Regina smiled, her _girlfriend_ was snuggling with her on the roof of an elementary school in a tent after they had mind blowing sex not ten feet away from the principal.

The next morning everyone waits on the roof to wave at the kids as they arrive for school, and Regina doesn't even care to make Emma wait in the tent until everyone else has left. She just enjoys the look on Killian's face as they both emerge sex-haired from the tent wearing pajamas.

* * *

"Good morning. Ready for the zoo?" Regina asked when Emma opened the door. It wasn't the first time she had come to the blonde's apartment, but it was the first time so early in the day.

Emma was speechless. She had never seen Regina in shorts before, and though she had seen the brunette naked mere hours before, the sight was something else entirely.

"Once you pick your jaw up off the floor, you might want to grab a jacket in case it rains later." Regina smiles. She generally lets up on her sarcasm around the blonde, but she can't help it right now. Not when she's so nervous about meeting Henry.

"Yeah, that's a good- I'm glad to see you!" Emma manages to ramble out.

"Me too."

"I'll go see if Henry's ready." Emma offers.

Regina's main interaction with the boy thus far has been limited to seeing him around the school, and a couple of times when she picked Emma up for dates. She subconsciously adjusted her shirt, fluffing her hair out, as she saw Emma come out of the back bedroom with Henry.

The small boy was wearing white and dark blue checkered shorts with a dark blue tshirt. It was one of the most adorable things Regina had ever seen. But when Henry laid eyes on Regina standing in the entryway, he stopped dead.

Emma shot Regina an apologetic look before kneeling down beside her son, "What is it, kid?"

Henry cupped his hand around his mother's ear to whisper something to her. And when Emma straightened up again, she was sporting a peculiar expression that was half amused and half crestfallen.

"Emma?"

The blonde just shook her head and led Henry by the hand out of the apartment. The three of them walked in silence out to Emma's bug, Regina lingering outside the car while Emma strapped the boy into his car booster seat.

Once Emma shut the door securely she ran an uncertain hand through her hair, ruffling the already messy blonde curls.

"He's afraid of you."

"What?"

The blonde chuckled slightly, "Apparently that one time you made Jimmy cry last year really made an imprint. That and Mary Margaret calls you the 'Wicked Witch' in class sometimes."

"That little-"

"Babe." Emma cuts her off, she gets this sneaky smirk that Regina's learned to identify quite easily. She steps into Regina's space, resting her hands on the administrator's hips, leaving Regina no choice but to lean back into the car, "It's alright. He's six, just keep smiling and he'll love you by lunch time, I promise."

Against her will, Regina felt her heart beat increase marginally. She was nervous enough to meet Henry to begin with, and this certainly wasn't helping anything, "Promise?"

"I promise." She said, leaning down to press a quick kiss to Regina's forehead, "Everything is going to be perfectly fine."

"Okay."

"So we're good?" Emma checks.

"We're good." The brunette confirms, "And you're worse than a teenage boy." Regina laughs, extracting Emma's hands from where they had just snuck into the brunette's back pockets.

* * *

 **A/N- Coming up next, zoo date part two! Side note- one of the last stories I wrote was all about Regina and MM reconnecting so I'm kind of enjoying pitting them against each other now.**

 **Thank you for your reviews, follows, and favorites!**

 **\- Love, Ms. Informed**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N- Alright, I know I said that chapter 7 was my favorite chapter, but I'm going to have to amend that to this one!**

* * *

"Henry, will you keep Gina company for a little while I go get some ice cream?" Emma asked, not really looking at Henry though, rather looking over his head at her girlfriend who was glaring daggers at her. They had been at the zoo for just over two hours, and Henry had been giving Regina a surprisingly strong cold shoulder for a six year old.

"Yeah, I guess." He said. He scuffed his small shoes against the cement, a habit he must have picked up from Emma.

"Great, thanks for looking out for me, kid." The blonde gave him one last reassuring pat on the back and sent a non-apologetic smile to Regina before heading off in the direction of the last ice cream cart she had seen.

Regina put on a happy face, and tried to hide her apprehension, "So Henry, what do you want to do?"

The small brunette said nothing, just shrugged and scuffed his toes harder against the cement.

"Do you want to see the polar bears again?"

A single shrug.

"How about the alligators?"

"They were crocodiles."

"Right." The woman looked around briefly, hoping to catch sight of the blonde who had abandoned them, but having no luck, "So crocodiles?" She asked, looking down to Henry again.

Or at least, to the place where Henry had been two seconds ago.

"Shit." Regina cursed, "Henry?"

The boy was nowhere in sight, and panic quickly settled in, _Emma leaves me alone with Henry for two seconds and I lose her son. She's going to kill me._

Regina quickly strode off in the direction of the last exhibit they had seen, the elephants. She felt slight relief at the sight of a small boy watching the elephants, and Regina all but ran to him, kneeling and putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Henry!"

When he spun around, Regina blushed deeply. It wasn't him, but the kid's mother was right there, grabbing her son and holding him tightly to her side, "Can I help you?"

"No, I'm sorry. I was just- I lost-" Regina found that she had no idea how to finish that sentence. 'I lost my girlfriend's son who is scared to death of me' somehow didn't have quite the message she was looking for.

Thankfully, the other woman seemed to pick up that something was wrong, "Did you lose your son?"

Preferring not to explain, Regina just nodded.

"Oh, honey." The administrator hated the sympathy in the other woman's voice, but was too concerned to make a snarky comment, "What's his name?"

"Henry. He's wearing a dark blue shirt, checkered shorts. He's about the same height as your son, and has the same brunette hair."

"Ok, don't worry. Do you want to call zoo security?"

"No!" Regina said, all too quickly, "I think I'll just go and check his favorite exhibit and then-" She trailed off again, not wishing to let Emma know of her shortcoming.

With that, the administrator turned on her heel, which was far less effective of a gesture seeing as she was wearing ankle boots instead of her usual high heels. She strode purposefully away, but once she rounded the corner, she was in full freak out mode again.

She had no idea what his favorite exhibit was.

The closest thing to excitement he'd shown all day was in the reptile house when they were looking at all the big snakes. So she decided to head there.

It was a decent walk from where she had first lost Henry, and she knew it was a long shot for the kid to be able to find his way all the way back there on his own (she even got lost briefly taking a wrong turn at the monkey exhibit) but it was her only hope.

She checked her watch when she finally entered the dark, cool reptile home. It had been eight minutes since Emma had left the two of them alone, and Regina briefly wondered how long it would take the blonde to buy icecream and realize that her son was missing.

Her thought stopped, as she saw a small brunette holding the railing in front of the tank where the biggest snake was. Having learned her lesson, this time she was more cautions as she approached the tank and leaned casually against the railing, looking down at him to make sure it was indeed Henry before she let out a sigh of relief.

She didn't say anything for a moment, trying to figure out how to breach the silence with the most important kid in her life.

Luckily for her, she didn't have to.

"Do you like my mom?"

Regina was caught off guard, but she appreciated his straightforwardness, and decided to respond in kind, "I do."

"No, do you _like_ like her." His green eyes were sincere, and Regina had to prevent herself from laughing.

"Yeah Henry, I really really like like her."

"Good, cause she really likes you a lot."

At that, Regina couldn't help but smile widely, "She does?"

"Mhm." The boy hummed, sounding just like his mother, "She told me so this morning. Are you going to get married?"

"I don't know." She replied honestly.

He nodded, still quite serious as he stared intently at the snake.

Finally, he turned to regard her, "What's your favorite animal?"

"A dolphin."

"Favorite color?"

"Purple."

"Favorite movie?"

"The Breakfast Club."

Henry scrunched his brow, deep in thought over her answers to his rapid fire interrogation. He'd never heard of her favorite movie, and purple was a girly color (though better than pink), but he supposed dolphins were pretty cool.

But he still hadn't asked the most important question, "Favorite book?"

"Harry Potter."

"Which one?"

"The sixth."

He continued with his hard glare for a moment longer before cracking a small smile, "We haven't gotten to that one yet. Can we go look at the dolphins?"

"Of course."

Without hesitation, Henry took hold of her hand and started out of the reptile house.

* * *

 **A/N- Thank you for your continued reading, reviewing, and such of this story, and have a great weekend!**

 **Love, Ms. Informed**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N- Can I just take a moment to appreciate that I've managed to update this story everyday for two whole weeks? That being said, I have absolutely nothing written for the next chapter...**

* * *

 _He continued with his hard glare for a moment longer before cracking a small smile, "We haven't gotten to that one yet. Can we go look at the dolphins?"_

 _"Of course."_

 _Without hesitation, Henry took hold of her hand and started out of the reptile house._

* * *

Unsurprisingly, he knew the zoo better than Regina hand had successfully navigated the way to the aquatics section.

Regina sent a quick text to Emma once they were there to let the blonde know their location. Unbeknownst to her, Emma knew exactly where they were and had snapped a couple of photos of them holding hands in front of the dolphin exhibit before joining them with the icecreams she had gotten.

Regina's smile was the largest that she'd ever seen. They spent the rest of the day wandering around the zoo with Henry leading the way. Emma held Regina's hand the entire time, all too excited to show off her _girlfriend_.

That evening as they were leaving the zoo, a kind woman with a son approximately the same age as Henry smiled at them.

"You found him?"

Emma looked at the woman questioningly, then at Regina who blushed deeply with her lower lip caught between her teeth, "Yes, thank you."

The woman nodded, "That's great. You three make such an adorable family."

"Oh no, we're not-" Regina stammered.  
"Thank you." Emma interrupted, smoothly sliding her arm around Regina's waist.

Regina managed not to bring it up until that evening after Henry was in bed. The two women were snuggled on Emma's couch passively watching Parks and Rec on Netflix.

Emma had her arm wrapped around Regina's torso as she held her tight from behind, Regina was tracing idle patterns on Emma's arm. The domesticity of the situation wasn't lost on Emma, and it was almost scary for her how easily she could see herself doing this every evening for the rest of her life.

Regina though was in a totally different world, her gaze vacant, and her idle patterns were swirling quicker and quicker. She seemed to be struggling with saying something, by now Emma knew to give her time.

When Leslie Knope broke out of the hospital even though she was extremely sick with the flu, Emma can no longer stand it.

"I can practically hear the gears turning in your head."

Regina rolled over in the small space of the couch so she was nose to nose with Emma.

"When we were leaving the zoo, that woman-"

"Let slip that you lost Henry." Emma cut in with a smirk.

The brunette rolled her eyes, "Called us a family."

"Mhm." Emma just hummed, "And?"

"And you didn't correct her."

The deputy sighed, bringing a hand up to push some of Regina's hair behind an ear, "No, I didn't."

"Why?"

Emma left her hand gently cupping Regina's cheek, "The short answer is I didn't feel the need to explain myself to a stranger at the zoo."

"And the long answer?" Regina asked, tilting her head the smallest amount to nestle into the blonde's comforting palm.

"I agreed."

The administrator managed to control her breathing and crack a brief smile, "See, that answer seems to be shorter than the short answer."

Emma counted to three in her head, amazed that the brunette was holding it together so well. She pressed a quick kiss to her girlfriend's lips, unable to be so close to the inticing red pair for so long without feeling them against her own, "I don't mean now, and I don't want to pressure you, but Henry loves you. And I kinda like you too." She added with a wink, "And maybe, one day, I could see us as a family. And we would be so fucking adorable."

Regina smiled, and responded in the only way she knew, "I kinda like you too. Even though you use a lot of conjunctions when you're nervous."

"Is that your twisted Regina way of saying you can see us as a family too?"

"Yeah." The brunette smiled, "I can."

* * *

They existed like that, in the small bubble of their happiness for exactly one more month before Emma decided she wanted to move to the next level, and Regina decided she wasn't having it.

"No."

"But Gina-"

"No! What part of no don't you understand?"

"Mainly the part where you've said it to me." Emma trailed her girlfriend along the path through the park, keeping a deft eye on her son who's throwing some bread to ducks on the pond.

"Emma, I love you, but I'm not trick or treating with Mary Margaret."

Regina was in the lead, and when she heard nothing from the blonde, she just assumed her girlfriend was sulking.

"I would like nothing more than to spend Halloween with you and Henry, but if the munchkin will be there in costume- Emma?"

The administrator stopped when she realized that her girlfriend wasn't walking with her any longer. Instead, Emma had frozen a few feet back on the path, her hands hung limply by her sides and her mouth was barely refraining from dropping open.

"Emma, what are you doing?"

"Do you know what you just said?"

Regina sighed, running a tired hand through her hair, "Is this about me calling Mary Margaret names again because she definitely began this when she called me the wicked witch."

"No, you just said that you loved me."

Now it was Regina's turn to freeze with her jaw dropped, "I uh, I guess I did."

"Did you mean it?"

Regina's slack jawed face morphed into an indulgent smile, "Of course I did, baby." With that nickname, Emma can't help but mirror the megawatt smile her girlfriend was sporting, "I love you, Emma Swan."

"I love you too, so much."

Without any further delay, Emma stepped forwards to erase the space between them, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend's waist, she crashed their lips together. The couple only broke apart with a comment from Henry.

"Eww, Ma." He complained lightly, before delving into his bigger problem, "I ran out of bread."

"Don't worry about it kid, we're heading home anyway. Regina needs to pick a costume for halloween." Emma smirked, her arms still holding Regina tight to her.

"You're coming trick or treating?" Henry all but yelled.

"If you'll have me." The brunette smiled, pulling out of their embrace to regard the boy.

He was already going a hundred miles a minute, "-and we can all have matching costumes. I'll be a giraffe, no, I'll be Ron Weasley, no, I'll be Harry Potter, Ma can be Hedwig…"

He trailed off, rattling his ideas off to nobody in particular before suddenly being struck, "Come On, Gina!" He said, grabbing her hand excitedly and beginning off in the entirely wrong direction to get back to the apartment (not that he knew that), "We've got so much to do!"

* * *

 **A/N- So up next is Halloween! Thank you all for your kind reviews, for your follows, and** **favorites. Have a great Sunday!**

 **Love, Ms. Informed**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N- Thanks a million for keeping with this story, I'm seeing just a couple more chapters until the conclusion!**

 **Also, this chapter is rated like T for allusions to sexy times, try to handle yourselves ;)**

* * *

"One hour of trick or treating, then we leave our bowl of candy outside with a sign."

"Two and a half hours of trick or treating, then we answer the door until 10:30."

Regina sighed, "One and a half hours of trick or treating, or until Henry asks to be carried instead of walking, whichever happens first. And we don't answer the door at all, but I'll let you do whatever you want to me when we get back. Final offer"

"Whatever I want?"

"Mhm." As much as Emma wanted to believe that bit of the deal was thrown in for her benefit, she knew that Regina enjoyed it just as much as she did.

Emma groaned and had no choice but to give in.

"Deal." She stuck her hand out to make it official, and Regina shook it with a sly smile.

Mary Margaret managed to somehow simultaneously blush and glare at Regina, "You do realize that we're right behind you, right?"

Regina merely smirked and sped up her walk slightly to catch up to where Henry was a house ahead with his plastic jackolantern candy bucket.

"I'm so glad that you two have a healthy relationship where you know how to compromise." Mary Margaret said dryly.

Emma decided not to engage with her, it would be a long enough night of trick or treating already, "I know, it's pretty great."

Mary Margaret opened her mouth to retaliate, but David silenced her with a simple arm around her shoulders. Emma had to suppress an eyeroll at their matching costumes, Snow White and Prince Charming (the same as they had been since they were twenty and in college).

"Is Henry eating some of his candy before it's been checked?" David asked.

"He had better not be!" Mary Margaret said, already setting off down the path.

Emma waited exactly two seconds before smiling at her friend, "He isn't eating anything, is he?"

"He's eating an Almond Joy, but I saw Regina check it before she let him eat it." David replied, letting a chuckle escape.

The blonde bumped shoulders with him, "Thanks."

"I know Mary Margaret can be a bit much, but you know that she loves you both, right?"

Emma knew, she'd known since the second day she had known Mary Margaret, "Of course."

They watched the three brunettes walking ahead of them for a short moment. Regina and Henry were wearing matching black robes and scarves that Emma also had, and the boy was already tiredly leaning on Regina as he began up the next path. Mary Margaret was bunching the bulk of her skirt in one hand while she seemed to be lecturing Regina.

David shot a sidelong glance at his best friend. He took in the dopey smile on her face, the way her eyes didn't stray from the brunette arguing with his wife, "You really love her, don't you?"

"So much."

"Just be careful with her." David said, suddenly serious, "Regina Mills may be tough as hell, I mean she got you to wear that ridiculous wig." He said, eyeing the horrible red bob cut on Emma's head, completing her Ronald Weasley costume.

"But you didn't see her after Danielle."

Emma slowed her pace marginally and shot David a questioning look. Though they had been dating for over two months now and she had heard about the brunette's ex, she didn't understand why the sheriff was bringing it up.

"What do you mean?"

"It was bad." He looked ahead to make sure that Regina and Mary Margaret were still occupied arguing with each other before divulging his secret, "I've never told Mary Margaret this, but I spent the night with Regina when everything ended."

Emma suddenly froze, looking personally betrayed, "You did what?"

"Not like that!" David dismissed, waving her off with a hand, "I had the night shift when I got an urgent call about a car that had crashed into the 'Welcome to Storybrooke' sign."

He dragged a hand through his short hair before he continued, "She was drunk when she crashed, and still pretty out of it by the time I got there. But she wasn't hurt or anything like that. Her car was another story."

"I had no idea it was that bad." Emma said, looking at her girlfriend in a different light.

"I mean, you can't really blame her. She walked in on Danielle cheating on her, like literally walked in on Danielle and that woman from the auto shop."

"Oh."

"Yeah." David nodded, "They had been dating for two years, they lived together, and then-"

"Regina drove into a sign."

"Yeah."

They laughed a little, one of those dry laughs that snuck up on them because there was absolutely nothing and everything funny about the two of them walking down a street in Storybrooke, Emma in a bright red wig, and David with a foam sword strapped to his belt, talking about heartbreak.

"So even though you're like a little sister to me, and even though Mary Margaret and I are your people because you don't really have a ton of people, neither does Regina." He took a deep breath as he stopped walking, forcing Emma to do the same, "Don't hurt her, Emma. I saw her at the bottom, and I saw how long it took her to bounce back, so just, don't hurt her."

"I won't." She promised, it warmed her heart to see just how much David cared about the brunette.

David pulled her in for a quick hug, clapping her steadily on the shoulder (the trademark David show of affection), and when they pulled apart, Regina and Mary Margaret were directly in front of them.

"It was one candy bar, Bambi!" The administrator huffed.

"You don't know what was in there!"

"The wrapper was entirely intact!"

Emma smiled at two of the most important women in her life ready to take to arms over the safety of her son. Without saying anything, she stepped forward and grabbed Regina, one arm supporting the brunette's lower back, and one holding her neck in place while she dipped Regina backwards. She paused for half a second to smile at Regina's surprise before crashing their lips together unabashedly.

Emma only pulled back when she grew short on breath.

"Take a photo of us?" Emma asked, handing her phone over to David before the doofy smile could drop off of Regina's face. Henry came over to the two of them, and Regina didn't think twice before scooping him up to settle on her hip between the two of them for the photo.

* * *

 **A/N- I apologize, after writing pure fluff for two weeks the angst needed to come out, I tried to reel it back and this was the result.**

 **Now that we're nearing the end, any things you feel absotively need to be included?**

 **Love, Ms. Informed**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N- So I had an adorable-ness attack, but also I mainly wanted to see more Tina. So you had better hang onto your hats for the next chapter cause it's about to be even more adorable!**

* * *

"I'll give you a million dollars."

"You don't have a million dollars."

"Then I'll give you an amazing back rub."

"Your backrubs stink."

"I'll give you my first born child!"

"Like I want to have to raise your spawn for you."

Tina gasped and looked offended, "What's it going to take Mills?"

"A miracle." The brunette shook her head and pushed the bright orange vest back across the table in the teacher's lounge, "It's minus two degrees out, it's snowing, and I'm pretty sure that the road is just one giant sheet of ice at this point. There's now way I'm doing it."

"But you're my best friend." Tina drawled in a pathetic whine.

"And as such I am here to keep you grounded."

"How about this; if you do this for me, I'll buy you coffee every morning for the next month, and I'll talk you up to Mary Margaret so she's less resentful towards you."

Regina thought the proposition over, she seriously doubted that any amount of being 'talked up' would change the munchkin's opinion of her, but she did spend an inordinate amount of money on coffee each month. And Tina seemed truly desperate.

"Fine, I'll do it."

Thank you!" Tina suddenly hopped to her feet and was around the table in half a second, arms thrown around Regina's neck in a suffocating hug, "I knew you loved me!"

The brunette hardly had time to put her coffee down before she was patting Tina on the back, trying to breathe through the arm obstructing her throat, "You know I have a girlfriend, right?"

"You're an idiot." Tina smiled, stepping away to refill her coffee mug, "Now get out there, boss!"

Regina rolled her eyes, but stood nonetheless, "You so owe me."

The administrator was halfway out the room before Tina's voice stopped her, "Hey!" Regina turned around with a quirked eyebrow, "Don't forget this!"

Tina threw the orange vest to her friend who caught it easily, grimacing at the bright, ugly color, "Is this really necessary?"

"You're the administrator, you tell me."

Regina just sighed and left. She folded the vest up as small as she could make it, and shoving it in a pocket as she stopped by the receptionist in the front office, "Can I get the stop sign?"

Maria, the old receptionist who had been at the school since Regina was young enough to be a student smirked as she handed the brunette the sign, "Who tricked you into it?"

"Tina."

The receptionist spared her a sympathetic smile, "Do you have the safety vest?"

"Of course."

Less than a minute later, Regina was slowly making her way out through the parking lot with tiny steps on what was most definitely a single sheet of ice.

She was on the side of the road for exactly five seconds before two small bundled children walked up to her, waiting patiently to cross the road. With a flash of her handheld stop sign, and a glare that was sure to be seen through the falling snow as well as the frosted windshield of the car she walked in front of, Regina got the kids across the small intersection in front of the school.

The brunette braved the snow for only a few more minutes before a familiar red coat appeared trekking across the frozen landscape.

"Emma."

"Hey." The deputy sheriff smiled, handing her girlfriend a warm disposable cup, "I brought you hot cocoa."

Regina accepted the cup with a grateful sip. It was warm and sweet, and it tasted like Emma did for the entire winter. The blonde herself was looking the most adorable Regina had ever seen her, bundled up in a home-knit scarf and matching hat, the tip of her nose red with the cold, "I think I know a better way to warm up."

"Oh yeah?" Emma smirked, wrapping her arms around Regina and rubbing the older woman's biceps in an attempt to bring some heat back to her.

"Yeah." Regina nodded, leaning forwards to press a short kiss to her girlfriend's lips. Today she tasted like peppermint, and Regina had to try not to laugh at the knowledge that Emma must have stirred her own hot chocolate with a candy cane as she had watched her do for the past week since it was 'Officially Christmas Season'.

"Excuse me, school is starting soon!" A voice called from across the road in the parking lot, and Regina practically growled as she turned still within the warmth of Emma's embrace to regard the woman who had shouted.

"Don't you have a class to teach, Bambi?" She yelled back.

"What did you call me?"

Regina ignored Mary Margaret, jumping when she felt what she was convinced was an ice cube press into her neck. When she swiveled her head, she saw it was just Emma nuzzling into her, "Did you call her Bambi?"

"Maybe."

Emma squeezed her girlfriend tightly once more before letting her go so she could cross the small bunch of kids that had gathered, "What is she doing out here anyway?"

"Making snowmen, eating the yellow snow because she thinks it's a snow cone? I don't know." Regina said, stepping out off the edge with her stop sign outstretched.

Before Emma could chastise her girlfriend for making fun of the teacher, a dark SUV skidded on the ice, sliding past where it should have stopped, and heading right at one tightly bundled kid.

There was a flash of black when the administrator in her dark coat, scooted as quickly as she could in her heels across the ice, to give the kid a solid push across the intersection before the SUV slowly rolled into her. The car was only going about three miles per hour when it hit her, but between the ice, her heels, and the quick moves she had made, she stood no chance and within seconds, she was flat on her ass.

Emma was on her in seconds, grabbing the cardboard cup that had rolled away slightly in the accident, and cradling Regina's head, "Oh my goodness, baby are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Help get me up." Once she had succeeded in getting back on her feet, Regina decided that was plenty enough, "Ok, let's get inside." She said, not even pausing before she took Emma by the hand and half dragged her off into the school. There was only a few minutes before classes would start, and she decided that if any kids showed up now they could navigate the street on their own.

* * *

 **A/N- What do you think? Also, the beginning of this chapter got deleted like three times off my phone when I started writing it, so it's a slight miracle that I got it done without throwing anything at a wall...**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N- Thank you all for those reviews, sorry to leave you in suspense. Not to worry though, I think it's worth it!**

* * *

Emma managed to not say anything further until Regina had plopped down on the couch in her office in an uncharacteristically ungraceful move for the brunette, tugging Emma to sit beside her. The administrator had small bruise forming on her cheek from the fall, and she could feel a matching one quickly growing on her ass.

When Regina just sort of pitifully fell over into Emma's shoulder, the blonde couldn't hold back any longer, "If only you had some sort of a fancy device that could help you to be seen by oncoming traffic so that you wouldn't get run into."

"Shut up."

"Oh wait!" Emma smirked, reaching into her girlfriend's pocket and pulling out the safety vest, "Here's something!"

"Shut up, I have a bruise on my ass." Regina sulked, scooting closer into Emma and burying her face on the blonde's shoulder.

"Lemme rub it better." Emma offered, sneaking a hand down to gently rub over the brunette's butt.

Regina smacked the hand away, "Stop it."

"But you're injured."

"Emma-"

"Lemme make it better."

Regina let a low noise escape that originated way down in her chest that left Emma trying to contain a giggle, "Did you just growl at me?"

"Maybe."

Emma just smiled, enjoying these rare moments when Regina let herself relax a let go.

"Do you want the rest of your hot cocoa? I saved it after you fell."

"No, I think I just want to wallow in self pity for a little bit before I've got a meeting with the school board." Regina said, she curled her legs up so that she was totally sitting in Emma's lap now.

Emma didn't know it when she first started dating the brunette, but Regina was a massive cuddler. She woke up most nights now that they spent together with Regina wrapped around her like a koala.

Emma just accepted it, and resigned herself to the inevitable.

"Are you sure? It's special hot cocoa!"

Regina disentangled herself just far enough to give her girlfriend a questioning raised brow, "Are you trying to drug me with cocoa?"

"Maybe, are you going to finish it?"

"Fine."

Regina accepted the cup and tipped it back, taking a healthy sip before going to put it on her coffee table.

"You should finish it." Emma prompted.

The brunette rolled her eyes, but brought the cup back to her mouth nonetheless. She tipped it all the way up and suddenly recoiled, dropping the cup and dripping the small remainder of the dark drink onto her shirt as well as Emma's.

"Ouch, what the-"

"Shit." Emma cursed as Regina held her hands to her mouth.

"Emma, what did you do?"

Shifting out from underneath her girlfriend, Emma kneeled down to retrieve the cup from where it had rolled underneath the couch.

"I thought of a totally cute way to ask you something." Emma sadly replied, handing the cup to Regina who was still clutching her mouth with one hand, "Open it."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, because last time I did something you told me to, it didn't work out so great."

The blonde just rolled her eyes and nudged her girlfriend, "Open the cup."

Reluctantly, Regina dropped her hand from her mouth and did as she was told. Resting in the bottom of the cardboard in a tiny amount of leftover chocolate was a silver key. The brunette fished it out, "A key?"

"Will you move in with me?"

The brunette was slightly shocked, "Are you serious?"

"Of course. I love you, and you already have clothes in three of my four drawers and you've reorganized my bathroom."

Regina laughed easily with her girlfriend, "It was a mess!"

"Nerd, will you move in with me?"

"Yes, of course I will." Regina smiled and Emma went in for a kiss.

The brunette drew back sharply with a hiss, "Ouch."

"Sorry, I thought it would be a cute idea."

"It was, a cute idea." Regina smirked, "Right up until your key chipped my tooth."

"It didn't chip anything!" Emma denied.

"Yes it did!"

"Let me see." Before Regina could even try to protest, she was tackled back onto the couch with Emma straddling her hips, "Come on, let's see." The blonde captured Regina's wrists, and held them above her head.

"No, Emma!"

Regina's protests were futile as Emma pressed their lips together, immediately engaging her in a deep kiss. Emma made an exaggerated show of running her tongue along Regina's teeth to 'check for chips'.

"Ms. Mills, we are all ready for you with the-"

A low voice interrupted, and Emma tried her best to disentangle herself from Regina quickly, but all that she succeeded in doing was falling off the couch, and hitting her head on the coffee table on her way down.

"Yes, I'm ready, let's go." Regina said, popping to her feet, and trying to straighten her skirt while not meeting the eyes of the principal who had barged in on them.

Principal Gold gave the two women a long look, barely containing his smirk as he took in Regina's mussed hair, her red lipstick that was smudged on the both of them, and Emma stuck halfway underneath the couch. He declined to say anything, just waiting to see what Regina came up with.

* * *

 **A/N- To be continued…. Up next, Regina's explanation, the move, and the fate of Regina's mansion are all on the line.**

 **Thank you for your continued support of this story, drop a review, let me know what you want to see as we come to the conclusion, and as always, have a great day!**

 **Love, Ms. Informed.**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N- Because things were getting too perfect.**

* * *

 _Principal Gold gave the two women a long look, barely containing his smirk as he took in Regina's mussed hair, her red lipstick that was smudged on the both of them, and Emma stuck halfway underneath the couch. He declined to say anything, just waiting to see what Regina came up with._

* * *

The brunette waited for a second, before she couldn't hold her laughter back any longer. It spilled out rich and full as her gaze flew between her floored girlfriend and her boss staring at her as if she had finally lost her marbles.

Both other two just waited a moment until Regina seemed to pull herself together, "I'm sorry Mr. Gold." She laughed, looking at Emma still lying on the ground, "Have you met my girlfriend?" She managed to get out between chuckles.

Regina waved her hand down to where the blonde was trying to struggle to her feet, still quite bewildered, "No, I don't believe I've had the pleasure."

Finally back to her feet, Emma extended her hand to the principal, "Emma Swan, it's an honor to meet you sir."

Mr. Gold shook her hand with a sweeping look to size the woman up. He didn't say anything as he watched the red blush spreading across bother her and Regina's cheeks.

"She just asked me to move in with her." Regina smiled, holding up the key as though that were explanation enough as to what had the man had walked in on.

Though she managed to get her laughter back under control, her smile was so large it had to be painful. Emma mirrored her expression, stepping back to rest one hand easily on the small of Regina's back.

"That's wonderful." He replied dryly.

Emma's wide smile was in stark contrast to his tone, "Isn't it!?"

"I'm happy that you two are." He nodded.

"Thank you." Regina's reply came out as a squeak as the hand that Emma had put on her back made it's way down to gently rub over the forming bruise on her girlfriend's rear.

"You have ten minutes to get ready for the meeting." Mr. Gold said, shaking his head and backing out of the office and shutting the door behind him.

Once the door clicked shut, Regina whirled around with a glare, "You're so dead, Swan."

"I just wanted to help!" Emma smirked, trying to defend herself, "You know that it will be sore later!"

* * *

In the end, Regina 'moving in' ended up being Regina bringing exactly one duffle full of things to Emma's apartment. She spent almost all of her time outside of work at the apartment, though she never fully moved out of her mansion.

She knew that it was simply more practical for the three of them to move into her home, but she stalled out whenever she tried to ask Emma. The blonde was just so happy having Regina with them, and she couldn't help the feeling that she would be disrupting the Swans by asking, so she kept putting it off- convincing herself she would figure it out eventually.

Eventually came two weeks later.

Regina was searching the bottom of the hall closet while Emma was in the kitchen, flipping pancakes, "Darling, have you seen my heels?"

"Which ones?"

"The black ones."

Emma and Henry shared a look, the six year old with a smirk on his small face while he munched on a stolen piece of bacon. Even though Regina had only been living with them for two weeks, Henry knew enough that he was the one to voice the next question, "Which black ones?"

"The cute ones." Regina said, pushing Emma's boots out of the way to check the back corner.

"They're at the house." Henry said.

He swiped a fresh pancake from the stack growing by Emma's elbow and sat back at the table. Already, he was calling Regina's mansion 'the house'.

"Dang." The brunette sat back on her heels a moment, Henry hopped down off his chair to come stand next to her and regard the array of shoes. With Regina kneeling, Henry just reached her height and he easily leant against her, offering the pancake he was still munching on to her.

Emma watched from the stove as Regina wrapped an arm around her son, and took a small bite of the pancake he held out to her, "How about the purple ones?" Henry offered.

"You think I should wear the purple ones?"

The boy nodded, Regina took quick stock of her outfit, her black skirt and light blue oxford with the purple heels would be an absolute disaster, but she was powerless to resist her little fashion advisor, "That sounds perfect." She smiled, patting him once and standing to slip on the shoes.

With that, Regina and Henry made their way back to the kitchen. The boy took his normal seat at the table, and Regina went to Emma. She hugged the blonde from behind and rested her head on Emma's shoulder.

"I like your shoes." Emma teased, flipping a pancake off the stove and drizzling more batter on the griddle.

"Thanks, I recieved some good advice." She said, pressing a kiss to her girlfriend's neck, "You know I love you, right?"

"Mhm."

"There's just one thing."

Emma tensed briefly, "Are you breaking up with me? Becuase that would just be mean with Henry three feet away while I'm making you bannana pancakes."

"Of course I'm not." Regina laughed, nuzzling more deeply into the blonde's neck, "But your closet space is simply inadequate."

"I think that your shoe collection is just overly adequate."

"Perhaps." She allowed, taking a moment and a deep breath to ready herself for her question, "Move in with me?"

"Excuse me?" Emma asked, spinning immediately.

"You and Henry, move into the house." Regina asked again, resigning herself to not using proper sentences as she tried to mumble through her questioning.

"I- We just- Henry." Emma stuttered, "I can't."

Regina took a step back, her lips turning down as she shot a quick glance to Henry. The boy was thankfully absorbed in his breakfast and didn't notice the tension quickly building.

"I'm sorry, I should have realized-" Regina trailed off, not even sure how to finish her sentence.

"No. It's just, Henry's in the middle of school, and I can't just-"

"I understand." Regina said, taking another quick step back, "I should head out. I've got a meeting."

Without waiting for a response, Regina left the apartment. She hardly paused to grab her bag and coat before she was walking out the door.

"Bye Gina!" Henry yelled as she swept from the apartment, not yet realizing that anything was off.

* * *

 **A/N- I foresee two chapters left! Thank you for your continued support, reviews, follows, and favorites. Special shout out to rondaday1 who not only reviews everything I write (making my day, every day!) but who had won the best adjectives of the week award.**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N- I'm going to ask you to suspend your disbelief for just a moment.**

* * *

Emma felt horrible the second the door shut behind Regina. Her heart dropped in her chest and she wanted nothing more to chase after her, but she had to get Henry out to school. She took a moment, there in the kitchen, her hands gripping the countertop until her knuckles turned white.

She only let go when Henry's loud voice pierced her concentration, "Ma! Smoke!"

Emma whirled around, seeing the pancakes on the stove had burnt and were smoking. She took the pan and dropped it in the sink, smoking pancakes and all.

"Hen, go to your room and grab your coat and your backpack."

He bounced off his seat easily, doing as he was told. Once she heard Henry's door close, she released everything she's been holding in.

"Fuck!" She whispered angrily. Stepping back from the stove, she turned to the wall beside her which connected to the front hall closet. Without much thought at all, she reared back and rocketed her booted foot forwards into the wall.

She counted to ten, grabbed her wallet, and moved on for the moment, "Ready for school?" Emma called.

* * *

Regina drove straight to the school, arriving half an hour earlier than normal. She had been completely lying about having a meeting, so she went to her office and promptly began pacing.

She didn't have many nervous ticks, but pacing was her one downfall. She knew from experience that her office was exactly eight steps from front to back, and four across, and she crossed that distance countless times in the half hour before Tina knocked, and let herself in.

The blonde took one look at her best friend and knew something was off.

Regina didn't halt her pacing until Tina inserted herself in the brunette's path.

"Move."

"No."  
"Tina-" The administrator warned, but Tina held her ground.

"I'm not moving."

"But I need to-"

Tina stood up straighter, glaring her friend into submission, "What you need is to sit your ass down."

Knowing better by now than to argue, Regina dropped down onto her couch and was joined by Tina.

"Tell me what happened." The blonde commanded gently.

"I screwed up." Not even bothering to ask for clarification, Tina just tucked her feet beneath her on the couch and rose an eyebrow at her friend, "I asked Emma to move into the house."

"And she said no?"

Regina merely nodded before giving into the break she had been holding off all morning. She leant heavily into Tina's side and drew her feet up onto the couch.

The blonde did her best to comfort her friend, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "Gina, you know Emma loves you, right?"

She felt Regina nod into her shoulder, "Everything will be alright."

"But what if it isn't?"

Tina could sense her best friend's insecurities getting the best of her, and she tried her best to nip that in the bud, "Emma isn't Danielle, you've got to believe that she's not going to hurt you."

"I'm trying."  
"I know." Tina said, patting down some of her friend's poofing hair, "Besides, if she's still with you after she's seen you in those shoes, and this outfit, she's a definite keeper."

Regina barked a short laugh, "Shove off."

* * *

Aside from her wall kicking outburst, Emma managed to hold it together until she made it to the sheriff's station. Once there, she dropped into her chair, not even bothering to stop by David's office to grab her morning bear claw.

That's how he knew something was wrong.

"Good morning." He greeted, bringing the pastry to her and setting it on her desk in a peace offering.

"Morning."

She replied, looking at the bear claw with as much spite as one could possibly look at a pastry.

"Rough day so far?"

Emma's only acknowledgement was a grunt as she took a large sip of coffee. David just sighed, knowing that a grumpy Emma would last all day until she was ready to share. He resigned himself, going back into his office to finish up some paperwork he had been delaying all week.

Emma didn't say anything further, until David got a call around two that they were needed with an escaped dog. As they headed out the door, David watched Emma pull out her cell phone and shoot off a quick text message.

The blonde remained silent even as they chased the dog halfway across town, only opening her mouth to yell out instructions to David as to where the dog was escaping to. The day took a weird turn when they finally corralled the dog, only to find a loose cow standing on the grass in front of the library.

David made a couple of quick calls to figure out that the cow had escaped from a small farmer on the outskirts of the next town over. It was three miles away, and Emma didn't question his decision for them to walk the cow back to it's farm.

Three quarters of a mile into their walk, David was leading the cow by her bridle while Emma shuffled along beside them, her phone buzzed with a text message, and her frown deepened even further.

"What's up?" David asked.

"Nothing." Was Emma's gruff reply.

"Em, we're looking at nearly six miles of walking ahead of us. Tell me what's going on."

"Regina asked me and Henry to move into her house."

"That's great." The man smiled, then noting Emma's sour expression, amended himself, "That's not great?"

"I can't just move Henry."

"Why not?"

The blonde floundered for a moment, "Because he's a kid, he needs structure and security! Besides, it's the middle of the school year."

David stopped for a moment, bringing the cow beside him to a screeching halt, "Do you really think that Regina wouldn't provide structure and security?"

"No, it's just-" She petered out, "I don't know."

David put a reassuring hand on Emma's shoulder, "I understand, you're not used to relying on people. But Emma, I've seen how Regina is with you and with Henry, she loves you both more than anything else. She's not going anywhere."

Silent tears began streaking down Emma's face, and David wrapped her in a hug without a second thought, "It's alright to trust her."

Emma had gone through the same struggle when she first got really close with Mary Margaret and David in college. The man recognized her distancing herself.

The cow nudged Emma's back, and she pulled back from the hug with a weak watery laugh, "Thank you, David."

"Any time, kid." He smiled, ruffling her hair slightly as he took the bridle again and began walking the cow out towards town, with Emma following, slightly lighter than she had been.

* * *

 **A/N- One chapter left! Thank you all for staying with this story for 19 days straight, hang in there for one more!**


	20. Chapter 20

Emma still hadn't gotten the chance to talk to Regina, and she still didn't know what she was going to say once she did, when she got called out. It was two thirty as a call came in to the station and David nodded at her to grab her jacket and follow him out.

She did as requested, and once they were in the squad car, Emma swallowed her pride and shot off a quick text to Regina: _David and I just got called out, could you bring Henry home from school for me?_

The response was quick: _Of course, be safe._

It was a reply that Emma had gotten many times before when she told Regina that she was going out on a call, and she hoped that was a good sign.

Five hours later, and Emma was trudging up the stairs to her apartment, splattered with mud, and dead tired.

What had begun as a simple call of an escaped dog turned into a wild goose chase, with David and Emma trudging around town, and culminated with them walking a cow three miles to the next town over where it had escaped from a local farmer's land.

When she kicked off her boots at the entrance of the apartment, she was surprised by the quiet. There was no small six year old juggernaut running at her, there was no smiling Regina with a quick, snarky comment.

Matching the quiet, Emma snuck through the the apartment, drawing to a stop outside of Henry's bedroom where she heard gentle voices.

She slid down the wall opposite the door where she could peek through the crack and listen to the voices spilling from within. Emma saw Regina's purple heels kicked off and lying beside Henry's bed where the administrator herself (still dressed in her oxford and skirt from work) was snuggled with the six year old.

'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' was open between them and Regina narrated the wizard's' adventures. She was just finishing the chapter, and when she did, Emma watched her place the bookmark and shut the book.

She stood, putting the book on Henry's bedside table, and turning to make sure he was tucked in tight.

"All snug?" She asked.

Henry nodded eagerly, "Goodnight kiss?"

Regina smiled, and leant over to give him a soft kiss on his cheek.

"And the other side?"

The brunette shook her head, but did as he requested.

"And you hafta do three!" He requested, pointing at his forehead.

Regina couldn't resist the puppy dog eyes Henry was shooting her, and had to actively resist the instinct to call him a 'kiss monger' as she so often did to his mother. Rather, she pressed one last kiss to his forehead, "Now are you good?"

"Mhm!" He hummed happily, "Goodnight, Gina. Love you."

The brunette's heart melted slightly at the boy's statement, "Goodnight Henry, I love you too."

Emma took that as her cue to leave, scrambling to her feet and sprinting down the hall to the front door so she could pretend that she had just arrived.

She just barely made it back to the front door and pretended as though she had just taken her shoes off when Regina appeared. The brunette paused at the end of the hallway, with her heels in hand.

The women held gazes for a moment before Regina dropped hers and reached down to slip her shoes back on.

"I should probably, I've got to meet Tina." She mumbled, going to grab her purse and coat from where she had deposited them on a chair earlier in the evening.

Emma melted, watching Regina trying to escape. She closed the distance between them in a few short steps, "Yes."

"Excuse me?"

"Yes, I'll move in with you."

Regina smiled gently, "Are you sure? Because I don't want to pressure you or-"

"Entirely sure." Emma interrupted, placing her hands on her girlfriend's shoulders, "I love you, and Henry loves you, and you're right, there's simply not enough closet space here for your shoes."

Regina laughed, stepping into Emma's arms. They stood like that a moment, Regina in her heels was finally at Emma's height, "I love you." She whispered.

"I love you too." Emma rubbed soft circles into Regina's back, "Let's go to bed." She stepped back, taking Regina's hand and leading the way back to their bedroom.

* * *

Emma smiled as she came upon the cross walk just outside the school. She gave Henry a pat on the back, and he tore across the pavement, stopping only when he was right in front of Regina. The brunette easily bent down and swept the small boy up onto her hip.

Emma watched Regina press a kiss to her son's cheek, Henry giggling at the lipstick residue left on his face.

It was the summer time, and everything was warm. The grass was reawakening, and reclaiming the green it had once been. Regina was still wearing her normal heels, and pencil skirt, though she had swapped her long sleeve button up for a short sleeve that Emma recognized instantly (even beneath the bright orange safety vest) as one of her own that the brunette must have stolen from her side of the closet that morning.

By the time Emma had reached the two of them, Henry had somehow gotten possession of the hand held stop sign, and was holding it when Regina triple checked that the cars at the intersection were stopped before she stepped out onto the crosswalk, still holding Henry. A couple of other kids who had been waiting to cross went across and down the hill to the school.

Regina and her crossing guard assistant went back to their side of the road where Emma was waiting. The brunette placed Henry back down on the ground so she could hug her girlfriend.

"That's a nice shirt." Emma teased, pressing a chaste kiss to Regina's lips.

"Thanks, I don't quite remember where I got it."

"Too bad, I wanted one so we could be matching." Reina just rolled her eyes, knowing that as bad as she was with stealing clothes, Emma was far worse.

"You know, you make a good crossing guard." Emma smirked, "The orange really works on you."

"You know, I'm not just a crossing guard."

"Oh?" Emma asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, I'm the principal of Storybrooke Elementary School."

"I thought you wouldn't know until Friday?"

"That's when the official decision comes out, but this morning two different members of the board told me that I was the pick."

Emma's beam was wide and she hugged Regina tightly, picking her up and spinning her in a small circle, "I'm so proud of you, baby." And she was, they had been dating for just shy of one year, living together for six months, and things couldn't be going better.

* * *

 **A/N- Alright, as much as I loved writing this chapter, you all wore me down ;) Since I couldn't just leave you hanging, I've written an epilogue which I'll post tomorrow as Chapter 21, and then this story will be over.**

 **Thank you for your attention, and interest in this story!**


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N- Thank you all for your follows, favorites, and reviews along the way which has made this story such a joy to write! I hope that you've enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it, drop one final review to let me know what you've thought.**

* * *

 **2 Years Later**

"Hey, have you seen Gina?" Emma asked.

"Oh yeah, I've seen her." Tina said with a suspiciously large smile.

Rather than ask about the wide grin, Emma just hoped the brunette wasn't in trouble, "Where is she?"

"Her booth is across the field, you should be able to spot it." The teacher laughed, "Oh, and take this, for me." She said, reaching into her purse and pulling out two dollars.

"What-"

"Just trust me."

Emma shook her head, taking the money and beginning to trek across the large green. The field was packed with kids, teachers, and parents as everyone was celebrating the start of the new school year and Storybrooke Elementary's opening field day.

As she neared the far corner of the grass, she could hear excited yelling and cheering, followed by some jeering, "Is that all you got!? You throw like my grandmother!"

When she finally made it all the way across, the sight before her made her laugh aloud. There were two large pieces of plywood standing up painted one as a knight (the school's mascot), and one as a pirate (the mascot of their rival school in the town over). They each had a cut out oval where a face would be painted on.

The painted plywood, however was obscured slightly by a white goopy mess of whipped cream.

"Not even close, kid!" Killian called from where his head was stuck through the cut out oval of the pirate cartoon. Regina rolled her eyes from where her head was poking out in the knight cut out beside him.

Mary Margaret had one of the widest grins Emma had ever seen on her as she filled pie tins with whipped cream. Of course at field day, this would be her job. Though she and Regina had been getting on better since Regina and Emma got truly serious in their relationship, the two brunettes still knew how to get to each other.

The next kid stepped up to the line, and handed Mary Margaret his two dollars and was bestowed with the tin. He wound up and flung the tin with all of his might at the knight cut out.

Regina closed her eyes, but the tin hit just to the left of her face, a couple flecks of whipped cream getting in her pulled back hair, but other than that, she was unscathed.

Killian on the other hand, had whipped cream dripping from his face, and he had clearly been hit hard a few times already.

Emma got in line, handing Mary Margaret her two dollars when it was her turn and smiling at Regina. The brunette had not noticed her up until that point and when she did, she shot Emma a warning glare.

"Emma." She began.

She didn't get to finish her threat though as she was cut off by the whipped cream filled pie tin solidly connecting with her face.

Regina gasped in shock, backing out of her plywood cut out, and wiping the sugary mess from her eyes. Emma laughed in triumph, snagging a couple paper towels from Mary Margaret and approaching her brunette with them raised as a peace offering.

She didn't see it coming when Regina pounced on her, wrapping her arms around Emma's neck, and tangling her fingers through the blonde's hair so she couldn't escape when she sloppily pressed their lips together.

Regina laughed into Emma's mouth as she made sure to try and spread as much of the whipped cream onto Emma's face.

Regina pulled back when she was satisfied that Emma was as much of a mess as she was, both women laughing fully.

"You're a goof." Emma accused with a wide smile.

"Mhm, you are too."

"That's why you married me." The blonde smirked.

"If you say so." Regina teased.

"Hey!" Emma laughed, capturing her wife around the waist, "Admit that you love me." Emma demanded, tickling her wife's sides until she relented.

"Alright, I love you."

"Good." Emma smiled, claiming her wife's lips in a sugary kiss.

"PDA!" Mary Margaret called, "Really, it's an elementary school event."

Regina just rolled her eyes and stole the paper towel from Emma, wiping her face off and kissing her once more just to annoy Mary Margaret, going as far as to slip her hands in the back pocket of the blonde's jean shorts, before she dutifully backed away and went back to her post behind the plywood.

Emma had a doofy smile as she went to stand next to Mary Margaret who was already filling the next pie tin with Whipped cream, "My wife is perfect." The blonde sighed.

Mary Margaret plunked the roll of paper towels in Emma's hands, "You have whipped cream on your nose."

* * *

 **A/N- And that's all she wrote.**

 **Keep an eye out for my next story, I've got a short one 'Emma Swan- Occasional Mechanic' coming out soon, and my next multi chapter will be 'Falling in Love (Apart)' it's going to be super angsty and I'm intensely excited about it!**

 **Finally, if there's anything you want to see me write, let me know and I'll see what I can do!**

 **Love, Ms. Informed.**


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